Wife did good under stress

[Kiowa Scout]

A couple of nights ago, I was up late watching TV and surfing the web for my next AR build. My wife had gone to bed. All of a sudden, I heard something slap my front door. (A little back ground info, we live 35 miles from the nearest town on a ranch.) I immediately jumped up and tried to walk, not good on a broken ankle. My wife heard the door and had awakened quickly. I called out to her to bring a pistol ASAP. In the mean time ( approximately 20 seconds), I got into a gun cabinet, in my living room, that I keep a couple of guns in. I grabbed a Marlin .30-30 and waited on her. She showed up with my pistol and a flash light we worked the area together. We had swapped weapons once she entered the room because it is very difficult to carry a rifle in the ready position while moving on crutches. We have practiced before, but this was a real encounter.
I was very proud and pleased with her actions and attitude during this situation. She has brought up the fact that we need to start practicing safety drills with the girls (3) just like our fire drills.


I don't know what hit my door, but there was not anything when we made it outside.

I have a feeling that it was our resident mountain lion. It has been in our front yard several times over the past 2 years. Once this summer it was drinking water from my dogs' water bowl on my front porch.

[speedsix]

...I'm going to respectfully tell you that more could have happened in the 20 seconds that it took you to get a rifle out than you can write about in an hour...you need to have at least a handgun either on your person or within arm's reach, or you'll not have time enough to get to it...healthy or limping...and help's a long ways off...you need to be able to engage NOW while any family member who's there and old enough/trained goes for another weapon to back you up...this was a warning...times have changed...

[Kiowa Scout]

...I'm going to respectfully tell you that more could have happened in the 20 seconds that it took you to get a rifle out than you can write about in an hour...you need to have at least a handgun either on your person or within arm's reach, or you'll not have time enough to get to it...healthy or limping...and help's a long ways off...you need to be able to engage NOW while any family member who's there and old enough/trained goes for another weapon to back you up...this was a warning...times have changed...

I will not argue that point at all.
This was the first time in six months that I did not have a pistol on my person while sitting in my chair watching TV.
I promise you that has been remedied. As I sit here typing, I have a 1911 and at least one extra mag with me.

[speedsix]

...thank you...I feel all better now...if it was a human, and he heard you call out to the wife, he probably won't be back...I've spent hours reading home invasion stories over the past year or so, and it's not uncommon for 2-5 people to hit at once...you can be generous with that many with 15 rds. of fatboy!!! Y'all be safe...

[Kiowa Scout]

...thank you...I feel all better now...if it was a human, and he heard you call out to the wife, he probably won't be back...I've spent hours reading home invasion stories over the past year or so, and it's not uncommon for 2-5 people to hit at once...you can be generous with that many with 15 rds. of fatboy!!! Y'all be safe...

If was animal and it comes back 16 rounds of .45 acp should be a nice greeting as well.

[speedsix]

...if it was your furry friend, at least he'll knock instead of kicking in the door...can you catch him on gamecam??? I've been in Tx since 84 and never seen a cougar...mountain lion...or any other name...but my neighbor says he hears one down by the creek here...screaming...

[Kiowa Scout]

...if it was your furry friend, at least he'll knock instead of kicking in the door...can you catch him on gamecam??? I've been in Tx since 84 and never seen a cougar...mountain lion...or any other name...but my neighbor says he hears one down by the creek here...screaming...

I need to place one out there to see if I can catch him. I have a feeling that this cat is one that was turned loose several years ago by a neighbor that has raised several mountain lions. It doesn't seem to have any fear of humans or vehicles. I would not let my girls out of the house for several weeks during the summer after he came in the yard. We hadn't seen him since last fall so I thought he had finally moved on. My male house cat was really wanting to go outside the other night after the surprise knocking, so I think it is back.

What really made me mad, besides sitting here without a pistol, is that my dogs didn't give me any heads up about anything outside. That's a first. Sorry dogs I told them that they were fired from their jobs. They didn't seem to care as long ad they still get food and loving from the girls.

[speedsix]

...years ago out on the lake N. of S'port, at about 1:15 a.m., I was snoozing through a late movie...when something slammed the screen porch door outside the room I was in...I woke up and grabbed a light...there was an owl on the porch...don't know whose eyes were bigger...critters who're supposed to be wild do some strange things sometimes...nature is never boring...

[XinTX]

...years ago out on the lake N. of S'port, at about 1:15 a.m., I was snoozing through a late movie...when something slammed the screen porch door outside the room I was in...I woke up and grabbed a light...there was an owl on the porch...don't know whose eyes were bigger...critters who're supposed to be wild do some strange things sometimes...nature is never boring...

That's what I was thinking. The 'slap' on the door could have been an owl, a bat, or some other nocturnal bird. A mountain lion would be a MAJOR slap. Those kitties are pretty strong.

[speedsix]

...it unnerves me that such a creature has lost its fear of humans...proximity ups the odds that a nasty encounter could happen with a child...people oughta leave wild things wild...he's right to be concerned for his little ones...

[texanron]

She has brought up the fact that we need to start practicing safety drills with the girls (3) just like our fire drills.

What are the ages of your girls? I'll have 3 myself come July. The 2 we have now are 11 month olds and will be 16 months old when the new one gets here. My wife and I have started the conversation about who will do what in an emergency situation.
I think you had a bat or owl hit your door. In addition to the game cam you could get a battery powered motion detecting spotlight. I picked up one of these but have yet to install it. Mr.Beams

[Kiowa Scout]

She has brought up the fact that we need to start practicing safety drills with the girls (3) just like our fire drills.

What are the ages of your girls? I'll have 3 myself come July. The 2 we have now are 11 month olds and will be 16 months old when the new one gets here. My wife and I have started the conversation about who will do what in an emergency situation.
I think you had a bat or owl hit your door. In addition to the game cam you could get a battery powered motion detecting spotlight. I picked up one of these but have yet to install it. Mr.Beams

My 3 girls are currently 6, 4, & 2.
Guys to give you a little heads up. I have a degree in Wildlife Management so I have dealt with large cats before. The slap on the door was not light. It was hard enough that my wife heard it through two shut pocket doors while she was sleeping. Once again this is the only time recently that my dogs have not growled or barked when something has been outside.
By the reaction of my cat, I think it is the mountain lion. We lost a cat shortly after moving out here because he smelled another "cat", be it a mountain lion or bobcat, in heat and went after it only to never return. This cat was acting the same way that night.

[ddstuder]

Speaking of dogs and mountain lions, before I moved to Texas, I lived in the mountains of Colorado. We lived in an area that had a lot of mountain lions. There were caves in the rocks that had lion dens in them.
One night I was awoke by the screams of a lion that sounded like he was right outside my bedroom door. When I got up to investigate, both of my dogs were staring out the screen door with the hair on the back of their necks standing straight up! Neither one of them let out even as much as a whimper, but they were definitely tensed up. I believe that if the cat would have come through the door, they were ready to protect the house, but otherwise they wanted no part of it!

I will never forget the sound of that cat screaming.

[Purplehood]

Could have been a gust of wind too...

I saw a large Lynx/Bobcat while driving just outside of Clute/Lake Jackson going east along the coast about a decade ago. It looked like it was claiming the right-of-way across the road, so I granted it.

[The Annoyed Man]

I will never forget the sound of that cat screaming.

My ex-wife and I were backpacking in the Gila Wilderness north of Silver City New Mexico, and were awakened right at dawn by a screaming sound I had never heard before. Scared the bejabbers out of me. It sounded like a banshee, and there was more than one of them. The screams were coming from several sides as if they were answering each other, and our campsite was in a hollow so the screams echoed too.

I didn't own guns back then. All I had was a hunting knife and a hatchet. I handed the knife to my wife and told her to wait in the tent, and I got outside with the hatchet and prepared to defend us. My hair was standing on end. After a few minutes, a mixed herd of mules and horses wandered into our camping area. I don't know if they were wild or had just been turned out to graze for the summer, but the sound I heard was the mules screaming at each other. They were all quite docile, so I suppose that they weren't wild. The herd leader was a large black stallion and he would let us get within a few feet of him, but although he didn't appear to be aggressive he wouldn't let us get closer than that. Some of the other animals let us scratch behind their ears and accepted proferred handfuls of grass from us.

But I'll never forget the sounds of those screams echoing around our campsite. We were several days walking into the boonies, so we were strictly on our own, and there would have been no help coming if it had been something more dangerous. I don't go camping without a gun anymore.