Tina Dorschel of Madison, Wisconsin must have seen her life pass before her eyes when she captured this incredible and terrifying video in the National Audubon Society’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, Florida. Clocking in at only 16 seconds long, you know something pretty crazy is about to go down, and fast, when halfway through the recording, you can hear Dorschel gasp and frantically repeat “Oh my god… oh my god… oh my god…” just as a huge mountain lion (or Florida panther, perhaps) comes trotting in her direction down the elevated path.
Luckily for her, the big cat — in typical kitty fashion — just seemed to be doing the usual cat thing of needing to get from one place to the other as fast as possible, for no discernible reason. It even goes so far to speed up as it passes by to minimize any human-feline interaction, kind of like my cat does when he thinks I might actually be possessing the nerve to pet him.
At any rate, hopefully Dorschel will learn from her experience and next time carry something to protect herself with. My personal suggestion is a toy mouse at the end of a string or one of those jingly plastic balls with a bell.
(Via Reddit, Tina Dorschel)