Metallicaās āDonāt Tread On Meā was already on Dee Gallantās favouritesā playlist.
Now, it must be at the very top after the song helped her scare off a cougar.
Gallant, whoās from Chemainus, was walking her husky, Murphy, on July 23 on a logging road south of Duncan when a cougar appeared and moved toward them.
āI just had the feeling I was being watched,ā she said. āI looked over to the right and there he was.
āI looked at him and said, āHey, you! Stop it!ā and he stopped. Thatās when I started filming.ā
She kept the video going for what she said seemed like several minutes, starting down the animal. She can be heard yelling: āGet out of here!ā āBad kitty!ā āGo on, get!ā āIāll fight you!ā
But none of it worked, so she pulled out the heavy artillery.
āI quickly riffled through my iTunes and found Metallicaās āDonāt Tread On Me,āā she said. āAs soon as it started to play, he buggered off into the bush.
āAs soon as he turned sideways, I saw how big he was.ā
Gallant said sheās seen cougars before, and that neither she nor her dog were scared.
āI guess he didnāt want to eat anything that leaves a Metallica taste in his mouth,ā she joked.
Sheās been inundated with calls from the news media to tell her story about a new method for frightening cougars.
The experience has her thinking about creating a wildlife playlist, with maybe some selections from John Cougar Mellencamp, Def Leppard and the Stray Cats ā to name a few.
Gallant is a regular player in the annual Georgina Falt Memorial Mind Games Music Trivia tournament in Duncan, organized by Don Bodger of Black Press Media as a benefit for the Alzheimer Society of B.C.
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