--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Marek Reavis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Mountain lions can make a screaming noise, though, that is way scary. > > Go to http://www.bear-tracker.com/cougar.html and you can listen > to a 2 second WAV file of a mountain lion's scream. Right before the > scream part you can hear a purr just like a house cat's. I can safely say that would put the fear of God into me! Even though I live in England I have a similar story; I was out walking my dog one winters day and out of the corner of my eye saw a large black panther stalking towards us. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen and a bit of a fright but I was more worried for my little jack russell terrier, I called her over and the "panther" ran off, I could clearly see it's long tail, triangular ears and smooth fur. Most would have remained convinced they could trust their eyes and had seen a big cat, after all there are loads of sightings reported. But I decided to hide in the wood every day until I saw it again and got a decent photo. Three freezing cold days I sat in a bush until one clear morning I heard a sound behind me, I spun round and it was there! It was a dog, I interrogated the owner to make sure she had been here that day and her story fitted so well it had to be the explanation, her dog had heard mine yapping and ran over to investigate, it caught me by surprise and my unwitting mind did the rest. Interestingly the dog was the same size but had a short tail and rough hair. I must have subconsciously imagined all the cat-like qualities it had. Which is a surprise, we think our senses give us a dependable view of the world but obviously not. IMO it's the same for most sightings of ghosts and UFOs, we see something out of the corner of our eye and imagination takes over. Consequently I don't believe any of the stories about big cats roaming the English countryside and that tape of a mountain lion underlines it, I've never heard of anyone reporting a noise like that! We only have urban-legends to give us a sense of fear and wonder in the great outdoors, you have the real thing. Be careful out there!
