The Grizzlies and Us - by Lynne Seus (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

ALL PROFITS FROM THIS BOOK WILL GO TO THE VITAL GROUND FOUNDATION.

Lynne Seus and her husband, Doug Seus, started with twenty-five cents and a dream they were told was preposterous. Their family and friends repeated, "You can't just go rescue grizzly bears and turn them into movie stars." Yet, Bart the Bear roared to fame and was recognized as a star, and featured as a presenter at the 70th Academy Awards. This magnificent animal shared the screen with some of the most famous faces in Hollywood, as did his namesake, the orphaned cub, Bart the Bear 2. Their most important role, however, was their inspiration for the Vital Ground Foundation. Their name and power connected celebrities and wilderness advocates to preserve over one-million acres of wildland to date. The lives of these beloved grizzlies had to matter for something more than movies.

In The Grizzlies and Us you will laugh, you might cry, and then you might laugh some more at the stories of the great soul of the great bear at the heart of a family.

This is a story that no one else can tell. That is unless one has over 50 years of singular memories with five grizzly bears, a black bear, wolf packs, cougars, coyotes, eagles, foxes, bobcats, owls, raccoons, deer, a badger named Billy, and a trio of human children. "You can't do this," they said. "Nobody does this." This is how we did it. It is a love story.

Review Quotes

"The Grizzlies and Us is an unbelievable, touching and funny story of perhaps the most unique family I have ever known, and wildest occupation ever chosen. Lynne Seus, in her own graceful, but painfully honest voice, lets us into her sanctuary to tell us about a family of outcasts from the human and animal kingdom that found a way to make it work and become stars. I laughed, cried, and scratched my head in amazement throughout the whole book."

- John Stockton, NBA Hall of Famer

"This family - headed by the 'Bear Man' - takes us to places where the average person dares not go. They have tried to show us by example what this great unknown is about. We can only sit back and enjoy and respect what these people have spent their lives accomplishing. What a family and what a grizzly guy this 'Bear Man' is."

- Robert Duvall, Academy Award-Winning Actor

"If you think it's hard raising children, try doing it with a 1,550-pound Kodiak grizzly in your home. With raucous wit and rare insight, Lynne Seus tells the remarkable tale of an orphaned bear raised in the heart of her family. The legendary "Bart" - with 30 films on his IMDb - went on to become the inspiration for The Vital Ground Foundation. This enchanting book made me laugh out loud and broke my heart. It is an homage to the precious wild and the bear that lives in all of us."

- Liberty Godshall, Actor, Writer, and Producer

"The Grizzlies and Us is not a fable or fairy tale, and this dreamer - Lynne Seus - is still with us, as are her grizzlies. A love that stops at the borders or boundaries of the self, or one's immediate family, is isolated. To read The Grizzlies and Us is to peer more closely into old lessons of respect, humility, creativity, passion, and a fuller understanding of how brightly we-the-living, connected by intimacy of deep knowledge, can burn. Can burn without ceasing, without being extinguished. A different kind of burning, and an older, different kind of love."

- Rick Bass, Writer and Environmental Activist