I’ve come to learn your brain is really good at subconscious processing of things that don’t quite make it to conscious awareness. Some part of your brain saw the cop and the deer and was trying to alert the rest of you.

I had that happen once when I was out hiking alone doing geology research. I reached this area of the woods and was suddenly overwhelmed by this feeling of TIME TO LEAVE. I tried arguing with myself that there was still enough daylight to check out an outcrop I could see in the distance, but the feeling got so powerful, I finally gave in and called it quits for the day.

I realized while walking out, that with all the little noises of the quail and other animals I’d been hearing all day, that spot in the woods had been silent. The next time I visited the area (and not alone this time), I found a cave right behind where I’d been standing, with fresh mountain lion tracks. Who knows, some part of me might have seen a mountain lion in that cave and was doing everything it could to tell me to get the fuck away!