Margarita-loving bear takes a dip in a California hot tub

Mark Hough had barely taken a sip of his Friday afternoon margarita when he heard twigs snapping and leaves rustling in his lush Altadena, California, backyard.

At first he brushed it off as the sounds of his neighbor pottering next door, but the noise grew louder.

“So I got up, looked over in the bushes and lo and behold there’s a bear climbing up over my fence,” Hough said Monday.

The sighting was the first of many encounters Hough would have with the bear that particularly hot Friday afternoon — over the course of a few hours the bear availed itself of Hough’s backyard, his hot tub, and the cocktail he left behind.

After first spotting the bear, Hough retreated inside, only to later find the furry intruder “bobbling away in the Jacuzzi enjoying himself.”

Hough recorded video of the bear lolling in the unheated hot tub with the jets on.

The creature played with the chlorinator and tossed the thermometer in the air, Hough said.

“He was playing having a grand old time,” he added.

Bears have been frequently filmed romping around the community that straddles city and wilderness. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Joana Warren said the department received six bear-sighting calls that Friday, but failed to find it.

The bear’s dip only last a few minutes before it emerged and lumbered around the yard.

Then it “popped out of the bushes, walked right over to the margarita, knocked it over and lapped it,” Hough said.

This June 29, image made from video released by Mark Hough shows a bear in a hot tub in Hough’s backyard in Altadena. Hough said he was lounging in his Altadena backyard Friday afternoon when he heard rustling, then saw the bear climbing over a fence...