Scared Spitless

There have been two specific times in the last five years that I have been scared spitless. They occurred approximately two weeks apart. They both happened in early in the morning when my defenses were at a very low ebb. I was on my way to get the cows in too milk on both occasions. Imagine plodding methodically along flashlight in hand, it's feeble beam peering into the murky darkness. All of a sudden you hear a woman screaming aaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
When I landed I could feel the hair on my neck standing up and I had chills running up and down my wavering spine. After a few spine tingling seconds of silence my spine began to straighten and my confidence returned only to be shattered by another heart rending scream. This time I didn't jump near as high and I was able to maintain some sort of sanity. Oh yes, that must be the mountain lion that guy (hunter) was referring to. The scream of a cat is the worst thing I have ever heard. By the way, he was quite a ways from the barn.
The other incident occurred as I was approaching the barn. As we were trudging towards the barn there was this loud hiss or pop sound right beside the fence. The cows bolted for the barn and my reaction was to bolt the opposite direction. Which I did with an amazing amount of agility for 4:00 in the morning. Woe is me, I still need to pass the spot to get to the barn. I slowly inched my way along, squeezing myself against the opposite fence while training my once again feeble flashlight at the spot. What do you think I saw? Nothing, absolutely nothing. I have no idea if there was anything there or not but it sure scared me. After the sun came up my knees finally stopped knocking, I think, no wait, there still knocking......