One thing about the very odd woods noises at night: it's almost
always
a fight of some sort.
Yeah, Nature is much about eating and being eaten. Most prey stays
quiet and most predators use stealth. Ah, but then there is, um,
reproduction. Nothing quite like a couple bucks proving whose
territory it really is, and they aren't about the browse.
One item of interest: Benny, the Aussie, who also sleeps on the
porch, did not make a sound. This says to me that he was either
scared or as curious as I and just didn't know how to react. Or maybe
like his master, it takes a while to come out of deep sleep and get
the gray stuff moving.