The first time Routt County resident Jeff Peters tried to use one of the multiple cans of bear spray at his Whitewood neighborhood home to dissuade a black bear near his porch, a gust of wind blew the red pepper spray into his face, and he ran to shower.

The time he really needed to remember to pick up a can of bear spray or one of the air horns at his rural home was about 10:30 p.m. on May 30, 2021. Peters was watching an Avalanche game when his wife of three decades said there was a bear in their garage next to their house. Not believing the garage door could have accidentally been left open in their wildlife-prone neighborhood, Peters went outside to check.

Emptyhanded and regrettably being quiet, Peters started walking toward the garage, where birdseed was stored, and saw an open man door. Everything was quiet inside the garage. Standing about 20 feet from the door, Peters then saw a female black bear on all fours.

Peters and the bear froze. Then the bear stood up in the doorway.

“When she stood up, that’s when I saw behind her two gorgeous, little baby cubs,” Peters recalled. “The moment I saw the cubs, I knew it was not going to end well because bears are more protective of their cubs than most humans are. And that’s why I love bears. She was on me in a nanosecond.”

Peters, then 80, went face down on the asphalt driveway. His large rescued dogs inside were barking crazily. He cannot be certain how long the bear swiped her claws at his head, back, hips and legs, but, “I remember being tossed around like a dog toy.”

Peters thought he was about to die anyway, so he stayed still and held his breathe until the bear left about 20 seconds after he played dead.

“All I was feeling is, ‘I don’t believe this is happening,'” Peters said.

He stumbled into the house where his wife, likely in shock, had already called 911.

“I can’t remember pain,” Peters said. “It must have been the shock.”

Peters is a lover of bears and has taken some 400 to 500 photos of them through the years since he bought the rural home in 1992. He has pictures of bears sitting next to the family dogs’ toys on the deck and likely many photos of the sow who mauled him.

The homeowner also credits the mauling by the protective mama bear for saving his life.

In the emergency department at UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center after the attack, he received an estimated 30 stitches or staples. One of the worst wounds was a 4-inch gash on the top of his head that cut down to a peek at his skull. His back was better protected because he had on a sweatshirt, but wounds on his legs were bad because he has wearing shorts.

A cut just above his eye needed specialized attention on the Front Range. Steamboat Springs doctors were readying him for the helicopter ride when they decided to perform a CAT scan to check for internal damage.

A doctor told Peters, who had not had a complete physical since 1994, “Your organs and bones are fine, except you seem to have prostate cancer.”

“The bear absolutely saved my life,” Peters said. “If it wasn’t for the bear, I don’t know what kind of shape I would be in or if I would even be here.”

After three days to begin healing at UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Peters soon found out his PSA level, or prostate-specific antigen, was very elevated at 795. He had no symptoms and “zero idea” he had prostate cancer until that scan after the mauling.

That began a two-year battle with prostate cancer with many doctor visits, chemotherapy and radiation treatments, followed by diagnosis of melanoma skin cancer. He received treatment both in Los Angeles and then in Steamboat. Finally last week, Peters was able to ring the bell at UCHealth Jan Bishop Cancer Center in Steamboat to signify the end of active cancer treatments.

As a mostly retired entertainment industry writer and producer, Peters has a great sense of humor and adventure. The bear claw scars on his body are largely faded, covered by his graying head of hair, or repaired expertly above his eye by a plastic surgeon. He jokes with his friends that enduring a bear mauling “crossed one thing off my bucket list.”

Peters said he repeatedly asked Colorado Parks & Wildlife not to kill the mother bear because he believes he was at fault and not the bear, which was only protecting her young. The wooden man door on his garage still shows the claw marks from the bear’s entry. The sow was captured by CPW the next day and euthanized per policy. The two young cubs were trapped almost three months later and taken to a wildlife rehabilitation center.

Peters, 82, still loves bears and calls them “magnificent animals and extraordinarily family-oriented.” Now around his home, there are no bird feeders, but there are three video-feed security cameras and a jumbo convex safety mirror that shows the view around the house corner to the driveway and garage.