Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Monday night as the kids prepared for bed we heard an awful noise.  It sounded like a very angry, and very large cat meowing...or hissing...whatever.  It occurred about four or five times in a row.  I heard it from the kids rooms and on my way up the stairs. 

Then, I heard it again after I was upstairs and went to the back balcony to investigate.  It was dusk, so I couldn't see anything very clearly.  However, I heard and saw several deer hopping away rather quickly from the backyards immediately behind our house and up into the "tree line" of the mountain above.  Of course, the quail took off once the deer arrived, so it was rather noisy.

Then, I heard the MEOWWWWWwwww again and noticed that one of the bushes in the yard diagonally behind our house was shaking violently.  Rather odd, no?  I went in to get a flashlight, but as you might expect, Marcus had taken them all to who-knows-where for some kooky experiment or something.  So, I came back in and didn't worry about it.  Madison ran up and asked in her sweetest eight-year-old-girl-voice...

Do you think that was a mountain lion?

To which, I in all my paternal wisdom, replied,

No.  It just sounded like a big cat.

Duh.  That's exactly what a mountain lion is.  So about an hour later, we receive a call from a concerned mother in our neighborhood alerting us that one of the new fawns was attacked and killed by a mountain lion!  Right behind our house!  The guts and stuff were still in our neighbors backyard. 

Now that is not an everyday occurrence back in home.