I'd never heard of 'Devil's Night' till about 8 years ago. One of my teenage sons told me about it after watching Brandon Lee's movie "The Crow" (Brandon Lee died making that movie). I laughed it off, put it down to "urban legend" and didn't think much of it all, till I spent some time alone out west in 2001.

It was evening on Oct 30, a dreary windy rainy day in Deep Bay, on Vancouver Island. I was feeling claustrophic, having been stuck in my little motel room all day long. During a break in the rain, I'd talked myself into going for a walk - even though I was new to the area and didn't know it well at all, dark was falling, the wind was still just a-howlin' in over the ocean, and my son's stories about "Devil's Night" were swirling round my brain....

All went well till I got about quarter mile away from the resort - then suddenly, the air was split with this god-awful death scream. Sounded like it was coming from the bush about 10 feet away, like some hapless creature was being dismembered live!

Well, the ole ticker just about went on overload! There were no streetlights on that road and I could barely see a darn thing, but I turned myself around and somehow managed to make it back to my room in about 2 minutes flat.

Told a couple locals about it the next day. No-one else had heard it, or offered an explanation. But I felt a bit better when I found out a few weeks later that cougars are quite common in that area, coming down from the mountains at night to feed on people's pets.

So maybe I'd heard a cat becoming some cougar's late-night snack. Or ... maybe it WAS the Devil trying to give me a heart attack! Didn't see much difference between the two at the time though, and it sure put an end to my solitary late-night wanderings through that little fishing village.   "Devil's Night" or no "Devil's Night"!