This is why people in rural areas have guns:

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770509149
http://news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070508/NEWSREC0101/70508013



>>I'm sitting in my office, looking out at my front lawn, and a small fox just walked by. This isn't that odd, except that I'm in a highly-populated first-right suburb of Philadelphia, about 8 miles from Philly's City Hall as the crow flies.
>>
>>It's not the first time I've seen a fox here, but it is pretty rare. Unfortunately, it didn't stop and was gone before I could grab a camera.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>I have seen a fox, raccoons, possums, and jack rabbits in my neighborhood. Where the old Ashton Tate building was in south west San Jose, we would see deer, and some people reported having seen mountain lions.
>
>I can recall having seen the same types of animals described above while I was growing up in San Francisco. I grew up in about the center of the city and the animals were about one mile west of us. A few years ago they put houses in that area and you do not see many animals any more.
>
>This year I have seen more reports then I can recall about mountain lions being observed in Bay Area cities. It has been a very dry year (not much rainfall) so I wonder if that has anything to do with the sightings? A few people have been attacked which is rare.