I noticed a mother bear by the side of the road, waving her paw: at first I was scared and wanted to get out of there, but then I suddenly saw something strange 

I was driving home along a familiar road. It’s usually quiet here: hardly any cars, just forest all around and fresh air. It was an ordinary day, nothing suggested anything unusual.

But then suddenly something black sitting right at the roadside caught my attention. As I got closer, I realized it was… a mother bear. She was sitting on her hind legs and seemed to be waving her paw at me.

At first I thought maybe she had escaped from a circus or just come out of the forest — my heart nearly stopped from shock. I was about to step on the gas and get away, but then I noticed something strange and frightening.

Continuation in the first comment 

The bear didn’t look aggressive. On the contrary — she seemed to be trying to get my attention, almost pleading.

I stopped. Then she slowly got up and walked towards the forest, occasionally looking back as if to check whether I was following her. My curiosity and a kind of gut feeling kept me from leaving.

A few meters further on, where the trees opened up a bit, I saw a bear cub. Stuck tightly on its head was a plastic jar — the little one was desperately shaking its head, trying to get free, but without success.

Then I understood: the bear didn’t want to attack, she was calling for help for her cub.

I tried to move slowly so as not to scare the mother, and carefully took the jar off the cub’s head.

The bear immediately went up to her cub, licked it to check if everything was okay, and then slowly walked away with it back into the forest.

Before she disappeared completely among the trees, she looked back at me once more — her gaze seemed full of something like gratitude.

I stood for a few seconds catching my breath, then quickly returned to my car and drove home. I will remember this day for the rest of my life.