I lived in a tent in the Mountains of Colorado for awhile. There were several scary nights, but it was lessened to some extent because I slept next to a German Shepherd an an AK-47.

One night, I am awoken by what sounds like a pig rooting around outside my tent. Hard to describe the sound exactly, but you'd know it if you heard it. The hair was standing up on the back of my neck as I remained still and listened to it moving around, checking things out. I slowly move my hand towards my rifle and pull it up onto my chest.

I wait awhile until it moves away, across the camp to where I had (foolishly) left my dog's bowl with food in it. I chamber a round into my rifle, and send the dog out first. (up to that point, he had been snoring soundly). I put my flashlight on the creature, which turned out to be a fairly good sized black bear. Not wanting to harm the thing, I wait a minute and just watch as he picks up the entire bowl and runs off into the woods.