I am a bear. I’m lucky, for I can read and write.

I was born in a forest near Yellow Stone National Park. I was a brown bear. I learnt how to run about and catch fish very quickly. But I was not going to need to know, soon.

Once while catching fish, I saw a different kind of fish. Its face was shining golden and its body was covered with the colours of the best parrots in the park. I wanted to eat that fish. I followed it along the bank, and then I jumped in the water to catch it. But it was a fast fish and sensing danger, it shot off like water from a geyser. I swam and swam, but was unable to catch it. It escaped but I was lost. It suddenly occurred to me that I had swam the whole length of the lake.

I wandered along, and soon I found something which I later found out was a house. I went in and slept. But soon the owner returned. His wife was supposed to give birth to a child. But she died. The owner thought I was his child and that the fur was just an abnormality. He started taking care of me and soon sent me to school. Oddly, I topped most of my classes.

After the day I graduated with the humans, my only wish was to return to the forest. But my step-father had booked a job for me. I had to be a human.

I know, I will have to tell someone that I am a bear, but bears don’t write autobiographies like this!