Fracas in the Night

The scariest thing that's happened to me in a long time happened the other night about 11 PM. Out of the bedroom window, which was open, I heard some sort of animal scream. I'm not sure to this day what kind of animal it was, but it was sort of high-pitched and in extreme distress. I quickly opened the bedroom door that leads outside to the back yard and to the forest beyond. Stepping out into the dark I could hear trampling in the underbrush and trees about 20 yards away. The trampling went on and on and around and around and it was accompanied by heavy breathing. I could tell by the breathing and the footsteps that it was a large animal, probably with hooves. After a couple of minutes the screaming stopped but the trampling and hard breathing continued. I ran and got the heavy-duty flashlight, but was unable to catch a glimpse of anything through the trees. I wish now that I had dared to step off the porch and creep a little closer. But I was terrified that whatever it was could come crashing down through the trees upon me. It was all I could do to aim the flashlight with one hand while still holding on to the doorknob to the house with the other hand.

The next day, in full sunlight, I walked up to the scene of crime and looked around for a few minutes. Because of the abundance of weeds, wildflowers and pine needles, it was hard to see any kind of track, only a few flattened weeds and scrapings in the soil. One thing I did see was the remains of a long-dead baby deer and a lot of old tufts of deer hair scattered around.

I'm wondering if this little clearing in the woods might have been the scene of other crimes and fracases in the night.