A childhood belief about general

My older cousin (actually my father's first cousin) is a hunter, and once when he was on a hunting trip, he shot this gigantic bear and had it stuffed and put in the reception area at his business. When my father and I came to visit him at work for the first time after it was delivered, I was very small at the time, and was naturally quite frightened of the bear. My cousin noticed this, and for some reason thought he would make it better by telling me the bear came alive when everyone left for the evening, and for years I kept visualizing the bear lumbering around his business in the dark (which would have been chaotic, since he owns a cattle breeding operation). I've since grown up and that bear still scares me. He also used to tell me there were mountain lions at the creek by my house. I think he liked to scare me.