Bear vs. Window Shade- Shade Wins!

But the real winner is the Innovative Openings Customer…

This time of year in Colorado, bears are in the news. It’s about where we live- beautiful Colorado, where people love living because of our gorgeous mountains and amazing wildlife. One of our mountain customers in a sparsely populated area recently related quite a bear story to us… we don’t often get to hear about window treatments involved in a dramatic story like this. We have removed the names to protect our customers’ privacy, as well as the bear’s!)

Black Bear photo

Our customer’s bear story:

“We had a large bear attempt to get into our kitchen a few weeks ago. Our fault for not locking the sliding glass door that the bear so easily slid open. But then it ran into the sturdy Hunter Douglas (Vertiglide cellular) blind and was probably an unfamiliar obstacle for the bear. What woke us was the violent pawing by the bear to move and get into the kitchen through the blind.

“When we got to the kitchen and lights flipped on, the bear was still swiping at the blind. My husband yelled and screamed at the bear with a deep voice, sending the bear out and off our deck very quickly.”

“…we do attribute the durability and strength of that blind holding up long enough for us to hear the bear. Fortunately, the bear did not get all the way into our kitchen where more damage most certainly would have occurred. We really do attribute our minimal invasion and product damage to Hunter Douglas.”

bear mangled vertiglide
Bear-damaged Vertiglide shade

At Innovative Openings, we take pride in our products and our service

At Innovative Openings, we are proud to offer high quality window treatments and the best customer experience around. That approach includes professional in-home design consultation, expert measuring, custom products built to order, and skilled installation. Those factors led to our customer having top quality window treatments in her home (in this case Hunter Douglas Vertiglide cellular shades), perfectly sized and detailed, and installed to the manufacturer’s specifications as well as our own tough standards. This particular shade is a very durable window covering, due to its need to function with a sliding glass door, and reflects the overall quality of Hunter Douglas products.

When our customer told us about this experience, we really wanted to do something to help. Admittedly, damage by wildlife is not covered in the product warranty. Nor is damage by household pets, just to be clear! (No, if your cats use your window shade as a climbing device or trapeze, it’s not covered. We’re sorry!). However, we found this story so unique and incredible that we wanted to help out Mr. and Ms. Customer by replacing her Vertiglide cellular shade, just as a gift from Innovative Openings to them.

Duette Vertiglide window shade

Living with bears in Colorado

We also recognize this opportunity to help educate people about how to protect both bears and themselves in this state where we so often share habitats. We spoke to a local Division of Wildlife officer about this incident, and she told us that this bear didn’t do anything out of the ordinary… it was just out and about and spotted (or smelled) an opportunity for an easy meal. The customer used good practices to prevent attracting bears… it was just a door accidentally left unlocked. And, there have been no problems with the bear since the incident. So, we have this nice, real-life opportunity to pass along the DOW officer’s recommendations for being safe when you live in bear country:

  • Do not leave food outside
  • Do not leave bird or squirrel feeders outside at night
  • Keep your trash in sealed, bear-proof containers
  • Keep doors and windows closed and securely locked

Just a little good advice for keeping people and bears safe, and a testimonial to Innovative Openings customer service and Hunter Douglas product quality. A win for everybody involved.