Well my first trip a few weeks ago I was very nervous as well. I was 6 miles up deep in the smokies at a backcountry site notorious for bears (#30) and so I was worried about that. Didn't get any bear visits but long about 3 am I woke up hearing believe it or not a cat meow really loud. I questioned my sanity and then I heard it again like a house cat doing a loud 'meowwww' somewhere close by. Feeling kind of silly I stupidly meowed back and it stopped. Imagine my horror when I got back home and researched on google finding several videos of cougars and such that apparently can meow and sound just like a house cat! Now I don't know that it was a cougar but I don't think there are too many stray house cats that far back up in the smokies. In any case I sure let it know where I was at with my return meows lol...