A homeowner returned after being away for a week and found seven apples arranged beside the giant stuffed bear on his porch. At first, he assumed someone in the neighborhood had placed them there as a joke. But the house was surrounded by woods, and nothing else on the porch had been disturbed. Curious, he reviewed the security footage. On the first night, a tiny black bear cub appeared from the trees carrying a red apple in its mouth. It cautiously climbed onto the porch, walked directly toward the stuffed bear and placed the apple beside its paw. The cub did not eat it. Instead, it climbed onto the chair, pressed its body against the stuffed bear’s belly and fell asleep beneath one of its fabric arms. Before sunrise, the cub disappeared back into the forest. But it returned the following night with another apple. Night after night, the same little bear repeated the routine. It brought one apple, placed it beside the stuffed bear and curled up against the toy until morning. The cameras never recorded an adult bear following it. The homeowner began to realize that the cub was not simply using the porch as shelter. The toy’s dark fur, large body and round face may have reminded it of the mother it had lost. Those apples were not forgotten food. They appeared to be gifts. The homeowner contacted a local wildlife rehabilitation team, who began monitoring the cub from a safe distance and left appropriate food near the forest rather than encouraging it to approach the house. But he did not immediately remove the stuffed bear. For several more nights, the little cub returned to the porch, climbed into the same chair and slept beside the only “mother” that was still waiting for it. The cub had no way to understand why its real mother never came back. So each night, it brought another apple—just in case she was hungry when she finally did.