A Minnesota bear seeking respite from hot weather cools off in a kiddie pool. Photo by Dave Zbaracki/Facebook

DULUTH, Minn., July 27 (UPI) -- A Minnesota resident snapped a picture of a large black bear cooling off by lounging in the kiddie pool on his backyard deck.

Dave Zbaracki of Duluth said in a Facebook post his family's electricity was restored Monday after being knocked out by recent storms, but that turned out to fall short of being the highlight of his day.


"No, that's not our dog," he wrote alongside the photo of the bear taking a rest in a child's wading pool.

"I guess he just wanted to cool off, so we left him alone," Zbaracki wrote.

Zbaracki said he grew up in Duluth, but just moved back to the city with his wife and two kids earlier this month.

"It's Duluth. There are woods everywhere," he told the Star Tribune newspaper. "It's not uncommon for Duluthians to have encounters with wildlife. You see deer everywhere in our backyards. Bears aren't as common, but they are around."

He said the sight of the bear in the pool struck him as humorous.

"I hate to humanize the bear, but it kind of looked like: 'Hey, I just ate lunch and now it's time to cool off,'" he said. "It's just another Monday in Duluth."