Just when you thought you couldn't get enough of that furry little face with those piercing brown eyes, Li'l Smokey is about to go 24/7.
The burn-scarred bear cub rescued in July during wildfires west of Redding has become a media star, inspiring e-mails and donations from as far as the Netherlands and snagging national news spots.
He has a blog – the black bear cub doesn't actually blog; his paws are burned – and soon, the South Lake Tahoe rescue group that's caring for him will set up a webcam, giving fans a live peek at his rehabilitation.
"He's doing better in every phase that we were hoping," said Tom Millham, secretary-treasurer of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care. Even his claws are growing.
Millham said Wildlife Care hopes to install the webcam by next week and make it visible on the nonprofit's Web site – along with the blog.
Wildlife Care took in the injured cub after a firefighter spotted him picking his way through burned terrain.
The 6-month-old cub, who weighed 8.5 pounds – about the same as a human newborn – has endured treatment for his burned paws that included, at one point, honey ointment. The dressings on his feet are getting smaller, which means the critical burn areas are shrinking.
Millham documents his recovery on the blog with photos and written entries. Comments from well-wishers urge Li'l Smokey toward a quick rehabilitation and praise the volunteer-run center for its work. Regular posters on the blog include Adam Deem, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection firefighter who found Li'l Smokey.
"It is great to see all the bears that LTWC is taking care of. It is sometimes easy to forget all of the other animals that these wonderful people are caring for every day, not just my little friend," he said in a recent post. Deem named the cub.
Millham said the tale of Li'l Smokey has inspired well-wishers to donate $10,000 to Wildlife Care, which is also caring for six other orphan cubs. Now up to 20 pounds, Li'l Smokey and his roommates are eating through grocery-store donations and another $300 to $500 a week in supplemental food, Millham said.
He believes Li'l Smokey's plight resonates because it almost parallels the storied life of his namesake, Smokey Bear, who was rescued from a New Mexico fire in 1950.
That iconic cub became so popular that he earned his own ZIP code in 1964 because he generated so much mail at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where he lived.
A few years before that bear was rescued, the federal government had launched a forest-fire prevention campaign featuring Smokey Bear. When the cub was found clinging to a burned tree, he became the living symbol of the public-service campaign that is more than 60 years old.
Smokey Bear, who was given a mate but produced no offspring, died at the zoo in 1976.
All the cubs at Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care will be rehabilitated to live in the wild, which is what the organization does, Millham said.
In its ninth year of raising bear cubs who have been orphaned, Wildlife Care tracks the bears' return to forest.
"We are 100 percent successful," Millham said.
"If they can stay away from people and garbage for three months, they'll be okay."
Call The Bee's M.S. Enkoji, (916) 321-1106.
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