Well, as you may know from reading prior posts, my two running partners are a couple of big, enthusiastic German Shepherds.  We were running before dawn this morning inside a fenced area near my home.  I was using a headlamp, and when I got about 20 yards from a big pepper tree, I heard a commotion, then felt something pretty big hit my right leg, from the front, at about knee level.  I'll let you know now that I never DID figure out just what the hell it was.  It slammed into my leg, went BETWEEN my legs and kept going with two Shepherds going around me on both sides, hot on its' tail (assuming it had one).  It made it to the fence, I guess, because I never heard anything more, and both dogs came back.  In our area, I'm assuming that it was a big raccoon.  Whatever it was, it was too big to be a stray cat or a 'possum, and didn't make enough noise going over the fence to be a coyote.  There's an outside chance that it was a bobcat, and there have been mountain lion sightings near there, but I'm thinking raccoon.

      It does put your run in perspective, though.  Our ancestors were necessarily always on the lookout for things jumping out of the bushes and trees at them.  We get very complacent with our luxurious modern lifestyle now.  It's a good reminder that, no matter who or where you are, there JUST MIGHT be something ready to leap out of a tree and come at you.  Thankfully, this was something with one thing on its mind....escape the dogs.  I'm just glad that, when it hit my leg, it didn't mistake me for a tree and start to climb.................. One thing is for certain.  There was no problem keeping my heart rate up during this morning's run.