What the hell is that noise?

A couple nights ago I woke up to the sound of something large scraping on the front door. I thought at first it was my cats acting up but I realized the sound was outside. It was the largest bear I’ve ever seen that moved away from the door when I yelled at the cats to knock it off.

He/she ambled up the driveway and about halfway up several foxes came up from the Slightly Unenchanted Forest and followed the bear down toward the next door neighbor’s house, over at Royal and Joyce’s. A few minutes later a ruckus erupted down in the SUF and then an awful noise started up. Here’s the clip of that (you’ll have to turn your volume way up or use headphones/ear buds) sound:

Nobody seems to know what that noise is. I didn’t know if the sound was an unhappy fox or a treed bear cub.

It was a creepy sound at midnight and finally ended after about 10 minutes.

The next day I spoke with two neighbors that said they have seen the really large bear, the one with tracks the size of two iPhones placed end-to-end. He’s been around for a couple years and makes a nuisance of himself and scares the crap out of people. Should he ever try getting in the front door again, he’ll find himself on the business end of a Remington.

Along with Mr. Bear, neighbors say a mountain lion has been in the neighbor’s yard, the one on the other side. It’s a big cat that has been seen around here many times and paid a visit two nights ago.

My cats love to go outside and hang around the back yard. Skeeter has discovered the world beyond in sneaky sortees over the fence. I have to work twice as hard now to keep them all safe and that means less time outside and more time indoors.

After all, little cats are no match for big cats.