When the elderberry go from ripe to rotten in the Pacific Northwest there is a stage in between when fermentation has taken place. Kind of like when you forget and leave the uneaten portion of your lunch in the truck overnight and the grapes ferment in their baggie, right before they turn to vinegar. The birds would eat the elderberries and get looped, and black bears have been known to overindulge in the fruit and stagger around.

I haven't seen this personally, it could be folklore, but then, bears are a lot smaller than elephants and it would take a lot less fermented fruit to make them fruit loops, wouldn't it? It is plausible.

And the saga continues. The dog that got the cat two days ago made a break for it last night (why doesn't she make a hole under the fence during the daylight when I can find her more easily?). I took the second dog along and stuffed a pocket full of dog snacks and then brush-bashed up the creek bank through several neighbors' back yards. Lots of greenbriar out there. We followed Cinnamon as she darted around out of reach, and finally realized that she was just sharing the adventure with us as we tagged along. I turned toward home, and pointedly had Poppy sit and receive a couple of treats, and Cinnamon (after bashing through the muddy creek so she's kind of messy today) came along and let me put the leash on her and we came home. I piled rocks up against the last patch over the hole in the fence.