http://www.bearridgeproject.com/2009/07/woman-screams.html
Monday, July 13, 2009
A Woman Screams
I woke up Saturday night to a womans scream. It was around 2 in the morning and I was sound asleep with the dogs. A high pitched scream jolted us awake. Most of the windows were open and the evening was very warm. The scream appeared to come from the hill right outside the bedroom window.
I jumped out of bed thinking it was my neighbor but quickly decided it was a coyote...a high pitched coyote. The dogs stayed in bed growling which was strange. I grabbed the flashlight and went out on the front porch. I really like to listen to the coyotes...they all have slightly different voices. Since the neighbor now has chickens they have been coming fairly close to the houses.
Anyway as soon as I got out on the porch it screamed again this time from behind the cabin on the ridge. It wasn’t a yelping but a single long high pitched scream. It gave me the chills. As I opened the door to go inside it gave out one more scream. I turned on some lights and made some noise and didn’t hear the animal again. The dogs were still in the bed growling.
Sunday at my neighbors get together I was telling a friend about the “coyote” and its strange scream. He informed me that the scream was most likely a mountain lion and that I needed to be careful with the dogs. I have seen mountain lion tracks several times and once spotted a big cat walking down the neighbors driveway.
So I am going to take a few precautions like making sure the doors are bolted so they can’t be pushed open and that the lower windows are closed up when I am not here. Plus when I walk the dogs I always carry the bear mace with me...very effective that bear mace.
Night noises are really a strange thing. Living in the city I could have gunshots right outside the house and it wouldn’t bother me in the least. For that matter a woman screaming would only get a mild reaction from me. I would roll over and go right back to sleep. When you remove the background noise of society a wonderful eerie stillness is left. Every noise in that stillness is amplified and although 99% of the sounds are benign your filter still needs to adjust to the newness of the experience.
Posted by BigBear at 3:02 AM 7 comments
Labels: Life
Monday, July 13, 2009
A Woman Screams
I woke up Saturday night to a womans scream. It was around 2 in the morning and I was sound asleep with the dogs. A high pitched scream jolted us awake. Most of the windows were open and the evening was very warm. The scream appeared to come from the hill right outside the bedroom window.<<<
The coyote cry will change, they often sound like a small puppy in trouble, so something will be drawn to them.
In the Gila River bottom, I spent several hours,searching for a lost Siamese cat, I could hear it, but never find it.
Then we went into the river bottom and found mountain lion tracks as big as dinner plates, per each foot print and decided we should leave.
As we left, a young mountain lion raced the truck “just for the fun of it”.