If you're a cougar, don't tread on Denise Gallant.
A Metallica song proved to be the right deterrent for the Vancouver Island woman when she was being stalked by a big cat late last month.
Gallant, a Chemainus resident, was out for a walk with her husky Murphy on a logging road south of Duncan when she felt something was following them.
“When I look over to my right, there he was,” said Gallant. “The cougar.”
She then began to record video of the encounter on her phone.
Gallant can be heard in the video yelling at the big cat: “Get out of here! Go on! Get! Bad kitty!”
That didn't work and the cat kept stalking her, so that's when she turned to heavy metal.
“I went through my ITunes and thought 'What’s the loudest most impactful song I can get here?” Gallant said.
She found her favourite band Metallica’s song Don’t Tread On Me and blasted it at full volume.
Apparently the cougar was not a heavy metal fan and took off as soon as the song began playing.
“The first three, four notes of the intro and he was just gone,” she said.
Since posting the video of the encounter last week, Gallant said her phone has been ringing off the hook. She's now doing media interviews with outlets from around the world.
Gallant said she even spoke with Metallica’s liaison Friday morning and was told the band will be reaching out to her in the near future.
She said she would love to thank the band for saving her life.
