Today in Wait, What?: Canadian hiker claims she used Metallica's song to escape from a wild cougar

A Canadian resident is grateful to heavy metal band Metallica, whose 1991 hit ‘Don’t Tread on Me’, helped her escape from a wild cougar on 23 July. The incident took place when Dee Gallant, a Vancouver Island resident, and her eight-year-old husky retriever Murphy, went to a local logging trail just outside of Duncan, British Columbia, for their regular evening walk, reports Global News Canada. [caption id=“attachment_7110981” align=“alignnone” width=“800”] Dee Gallant and Murphy, whose lives were saved by scaring off a cougar with a Metallica hit CREDIT: CNN[/caption] A few miles into the woods, she felt that “like something was watching”. However, to her shock, they were being stalked by a wild cougar. “I looked over to the right and there it was, I couldn’t make it out at first and thought ‘oh that is a strange colour, that’s not a tree,’” she  recalled. It wasn’t until the predator was moving toward them that she realised what it was. In hopes of intimidating the wild feline, Gallant waved her hands and yelled at the animal, but nothing worked, as it slowly approached towards her and Murphy. Fortunately, Gallant’s phone came in handy. She opened her music library and decided to blast the classic track, ‘Don’t Tread On Me’, to scare it off. “I thought it was perfect because it gives him the message that I want to send, and it’s a really intimidating-sounding song. I immediately put it on and I held it up high in the air… As soon as he heard the first note, he bolted. He was just gone,” she said to Global News Canada. Gallant decided to keep the track in loop, Murphy close and stay in the middle of the road until she finished her hike. When asked what she would say to the members of Metallica, Gallant laughed and mentioned that she would definitely give them all a big hug, and thank them for saving her life. (With inputs from agencies)