Pasadena bears swimming pool cubs – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Listen, these bears just want to go for a swim

Can you blame them?

Can you blame them?

Elizabeth Lopatto
is a reporter who writes about tech, money, and human behavior. She joined The Verge in 2014 as science editor. Previously, she was a reporter at Bloomberg.

Here are three bears: two cubs and a mama. It’s the end of summer, and presumably the mama is about to send the cubs back to bear school, where they will learn important skills like addition, subtraction, and hibernation. So what did they do for a little summer fun? Oh, naturally: they went swimming.

Just look how happy they are!The young bears appear to be adept swimmers, though their mother kept a watchful eye on them. Fair enough, there’s no lifeguard on duty, and even if there was, do you think many lifeguards are trained to rescue drowning bears? (If you are a lifeguard who has been trained to rescue drowning bears, please email me, I need to know everything.) Granted, their little bit of summer fun apparently terrorized a Pasadena neighborhood, but just look how happy they are!

After their swim, they hit the pool’s snack stand (a dumpster), and then made their way to a second pool. I hope the bears took some time to let their food digest before they swam again, because side-stitch is so uncomfortable, you know? I hate that, when I get a cramp because I went swimming too soon after eating.

Anyhow some beagle ruined their fun and now all three bears are up a tree. Hopefully the three will retreat to the wilderness on their own — under the cover of darkness, where no beagles will be able to bother them — but if not, their little adventure may end with tranquilizer darts.

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