Popoki_Nui
09-25-2006, 10:27 PM
Oh MAN. I am totally FREAKED. I had my instruments set up in the back 40 hoping to make some observations of Neptune and Uranus. About an hour or so ago a deer blew thru the bush at warp 9, breathing HARD and whistling loudly, crashing up a 20 meter rock hill like it was flat prairie. We have dozens of deer who visit us, but I've never in my life seen a deer this spooked. As I was pondering the significance of this (alarm bells beginninng to sound in my thick head....), a very loud SNARL/bark/ sound, like demented house cat on steroids, just a few meters behind me. There is nothing else that sounds like that around here except a cougar.
Then a frantic barking dog on the neighbouring property that ended suddenly in a yelping wail, then silence. Then another snarling barking noise, and more crashing around in the bush. Everything went silent; no owls, no nightbirds, no frogs, no crickets...every night sound has ceased. I was in the house in one second flat.
I know we have cougars on the island, and we often get warning that one is preying locally on sheep/llamas/chickens whatever, and I have seen their spoor in the area...but I have never been this close to an attack.
Catching my breath I went out the back door (very...slowly), all outdoor lights on, to check the situation, when Montana (my avatar cat) shot past me headed up the same hill the deer and -presumably the cougar- just went. I d**m near died right there and then. I did manage to grab him and stuff him back into the house. i am freaked out, and I'm shaking like a leaf. I hope my neighbour's dog is ok. I hope that deer made it ok. I don't know, but I know I'm not going back out there tonight.
Then a frantic barking dog on the neighbouring property that ended suddenly in a yelping wail, then silence. Then another snarling barking noise, and more crashing around in the bush. Everything went silent; no owls, no nightbirds, no frogs, no crickets...every night sound has ceased. I was in the house in one second flat.
I know we have cougars on the island, and we often get warning that one is preying locally on sheep/llamas/chickens whatever, and I have seen their spoor in the area...but I have never been this close to an attack.
Catching my breath I went out the back door (very...slowly), all outdoor lights on, to check the situation, when Montana (my avatar cat) shot past me headed up the same hill the deer and -presumably the cougar- just went. I d**m near died right there and then. I did manage to grab him and stuff him back into the house. i am freaked out, and I'm shaking like a leaf. I hope my neighbour's dog is ok. I hope that deer made it ok. I don't know, but I know I'm not going back out there tonight.