Brushes with death...

[Bucharest]

Me and my brother and our mom were driving home one night when a whitetail fawn ran out in front of us. We braked in time and it ran off, but we then started getting up to speed when a buck and a doe jumped straight out with no time to react, and we slammed into both of them head on at about 58-63mph. We caught the buck by its neck right on the driver's side a-pillar and it got whipped around and slammed into the driver's side door and then slid down the side of the car. The doe, meanwhile, got picked up, its flank went right into the windshield, and then it went up and over the roof of the car. Lord knows what would have happened if the buck's head or antlers, or the doe's hooves went through the windshield- probably would've maimed my mom or brother, or flat out killed 'em.

 

[Some JERK]

I hear black bears aren't all that large or that dangerous, and they are more like big pigs than anything else. Arent you supposed to wave your arms around and yell at it, and back away slowly? never turn around and run?

something tells me it wouldnt have been all ok if you saw a grizzly or mountain lion..

Black bears aren't usually dangerous in a random, one-off encounter. They usually bluff charge and that can be pretty intimidating, but it's supposed to be. It's true that they don't attack often, (as evidenced by the whole lot of nothing that happened when we almost tripped over each other.) but if they decide that they live on your property, eventually something very bad is going to happen, especially if you have animals, which is why this one got himself banned forever.

As for not being large or dangerous or like "big pigs"... I don't know anyone who has ever been killed by a pig. But a black bear can easily end your life if it wants to... it just doesn't usually want to.

Your dog is another story though.

If I had seen a grizzly or a mountain lion, I would have just shot it on the spot. (I was armed at the time). Only problems with that are: 1.) There are no grizzlies around here. 2.) you usually don't see a mountain lion until it's already kicking your ass, and by that time your rifle is basically useless to you.

 

[fuzzypickles]

A summer storm hit my area almost 2 years ago, and it blew down trees and telephone poles, destroying and damaging a few houses and cars in my town. One of the trees that fell completely destroyed my next door neighbor's house, and one of its boughs skewered its way into the kitchen. I was in the basement of the house waking up from a nap at the time, and I heard glass breaking and drywall being smashed. When I went upstairs, I noticed that there was a huge branch that poked its way through the ceiling, and it smashed a picture frame on my wall. In any case, I was out of harm's way because I was in the basement, but the branch was merely inches from crushing my brother's head as he was walking by at the time.