Bushkill General Store, Route 209, 1:20 PM by JEFF FUSCO
RELATED: Leroy Lewis stood in the doorway of his tiny mobile home in Bushkill on Monday evening and wept as a Pennsylvania Game Commission officer told him his beloved bear, Bozo, had been shot by a hunter. Seventeen years of memories filled Lewis’ mind as he digested the news that Bozo was dead. In those years, Lewis watched this wild animal-turned-pet grow as he hand-fed it table scraps and store-bought pies and other sweets. When Bozo was shot by a hunter Monday, he weighed nearly 900 pounds. That made Bozo the largest black bear ever killed in Pennsylvania. A trophy for David Price, the hunter, the kill was a heartbreak for Lewis. “I’m devastated. I’m just devastated,” he said Friday. “I mean I feel like I lost a friend. He used to come knock on the door when he was hungry.” MORE