Cassidy "Weave" Weaver was born on March 15, 1958 in the back of a truck headed west on Georgia. Hwy. 422 between Clayton and Dancing Bear. Weave's parents, Bill and Sally Weaver, were itinerate beekeepers headed for the Apple Orchards of Gilmer County. Upon reaching the small town of Dancing Bear the Weaver's stopped long enough to gas up the truck and register the birth of their daughter. The Weaver's nomadic lifestyle soon led them far from Georgia and it would be nearly forty years before Weave would return.

Weave, of course, learned about bees from an early age but it was not until the age of sixteen that she learned about birds and ran off with a handsome young ornithology student from Idaho. Her love of the birds and the bees and her love of a nomadic life proved stronger than that for the birdwatcher, however, and Weave was soon on her own.

A string of failed relationships plagued Weave over the next ten years. She took up with a bright, idealist attorney working for the Audubon Society, then a veterinarian from Spokane, followed by a fling with an organic farmer in Oregon, a goat herder in Wyoming, etc. In 1984 Weave finally settled down in Hungry Horse, Montana living with Travis Samuels. Travis, a ranger for the U.S. Forest Service, was thirty years her senior.

In 1986 Travis was called upon to capture a black bear that was found roaming the streets of Hungry Horse, overturning garbage cans and generally creating a nuisance. Tavis's efforts to capture the wily bear met with no success until, in frustration, he enlisted the help of Weave. The bear, which proved to be tame, took an immediate liking to Weave and allowed himself to be captured. Weave, equally taken with the bear, adopted the animal.