True story. Happened just about an hour ago…
Heard a creepy noise outside, over and over… Minutes of horror film level of creepy, rhythmic, raspy, barking…
A fox, I guessed after a moment or two. I recorded video of it (in complete darkness) and went to get a torch… I grabbed two and shone them out the front door (which is all glass). The creepy barks stopped. Eyes glowed back at me from about two car lengths away. They blinked at my torch beams. They disappeared. Reappeared. Then darted away towards the main road.
So, what’s a girl to do? Wander outside in the rain and investigate, of course.
Filming again, but with torches to light the way, I walked out the driveway gate onto the lane. Nothing to the right, where it had leapt off out of sight; nothing to the left. Only the sound of rain around me. I walked out a little further…
My neighbour’s cat, a little female cat, was cowering under my car. She is sweet and trusts me, so I walked her home in the rain, one torch shining in front, the other in back of us.
She got to her driveway safely, and I may have jogged home, growling in a scary voice (well, it was a growl anyway, probably not all that scary, but hopefully unexpected by the creepy barker) in the dark whilst waving my torches like my arms had been replaced with Kermit the Frog’s in full flail. I was damp, slightly winded, and totally ridiculous.
But… I think I just saved my neighbour’s cat from becoming fox food though, so completely worth my posessed sprint down our dark, rainy, rural lane at nearly 10:30 pm.