Ever since we moved here, I have been nervous on one short stretch of a nearby street when I walk there alone at night. I am not afraid of thieves or rapists or thugs. I am afraid of wild animals. It is the only part of the walk that is somewhat wooded and, despite the chain link fence along the sidewalk, I am always convinced some creature is going to confront me.
Tonight, it happened.
As I headed up the hill, exactly halfway through the scary part, there was a loud rustle to my left. I could see people up ahead, so I did not want to embarrass myself by running screaming up the road. (It is a small town after all, and I have hidden my insanity from the general public reasonably well thus far.) I also decided that I should see what was causing this ruckus, as it had clearly gone up a tree, but not high enough to jump onto my head, and it would be silly to be afraid of a cat-- even the feral cats roaming these streets.
I know it isn't a fresh water squid. Nor is it particularly large. So, I turn to look. It is 10:15pm. It is dark. The critter is dimly back lit and clinging to a tree. I squint at it, and although I can only see its silhouette, I know it is staring back at me. It is the size of a large cat. Okay, so it could be a cat, perhaps a raccoon. And I know from experience that yelling "Raccoon!" at a raccoon will make it waddle away in disgust, so I could deal with a raccoon. But upon further inspection by yours myopically, the ears looked rather round, like maybe a bear cub's might. And where a bear cub the size of a cat is, the mama bear is generally not far behind, and I was not taking any chances, knitting needles in my bag or no, so I hustled up the hill.
And nothing chased me. Take that nature!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Since you were brave enough to confess to this variety of crazy, I will share this:
I think it's entirely possible every time we walk the trail at the end of our road that we will see something that we need to run from.
Furthermore, once when Bob and I were staying at this nice getaway in Napa we came around a corner and thought up in the distance we saw what MIGHT be a bear cub. So we approached a burned out tree stump making loud noises in hopes it would amble off. But they don't call them stumps for nothing. That thing didn't budge.
Post a Comment