So I was outside letting Angel do her business. It's dark, but there's a light from the street that illuminates a strip between the next door neighbors back yard and mine, and anyway it's a clear night with plenty of stars and a more than half-full moon, so I can even pick out Angel from the background of white and don't need a flashlight. Angel is thirty or so feet from me opposite the direction of the house. I'm standing in the middle of the yard trying to keep my pecker from freezing. Melody is between me and the house, picking her way toward me through the snow, being very careful to stay out of the deep areas, preferring the path that Angel and I have made through the snow.

Now... several things happen in rapid succession at this point. First, I see what looks like a fox (or a huge cat) trotting through the snow in that lighted strip between my house and the neighbors. He/she is heading away from the street towards a slightly wooded area behind the neighbors property. I don't know if Angel had seen it yet, but I immediately turn in her direction to call her inside when I hear a low growl from Melody. I turn around barely in time to see Melody bounding through the snow towards where I saw the fox/cat/alien creature. Keep in mind that she's small enough to sit comfortably on my shoulder. Whatever is out there is at least twice her size. I still don't know if Angel saw the animal, but she did see Melody and took off like a shot after her. Melody must have thought that the situation got out of control because she immediately switched direction and darted back into the house followed by Angel, leaving me standing in the middle of the yard telling myself that it was just a fox and they don't attack humans and was probably long gone by now. Elapsed time: around 10 second.

This is what happens when a small cat grows up playing with a German Shepherd... They get delusions of grandeur.