By Tim Binnall
A North Carolina motorist got quite the scare when a bald eagle grasping a cat lost its grip on the unfortunate feline, and the would-be bird food smashed through the driver's windshield. According to a local media report, the wild incident occurred on Wednesday morning as Melissa Schlarb was commuting to work. Her normally routine drive initially turned wondrous when she spotted a bald eagle flying overhead. "I'm not used to seeing them there," she recalled, "and I was like, 'wow, that's amazing.'" However, when she got a closer look at the bird, she realized that the majestic creature "had something with it."
Schlarb quickly determined that the bald eagle was clutching a cat, but "barely had a hold on it, and it dropped it right on my windshield," smashing the glass and splattering the feline's remains all over her passenger side seat. "I have guts all over me," she said of the unsettling moments after impact, "there's glass everywhere. It sounded like a bomb went off." An understandably disoriented Schlarb slammed on her brakes and then maneuvered over to the breakdown lane to assess the situation. Looking back on the experience, she expressed gratitude that the dead cat struck the passenger side of her vehicle, since "even a shift a little bit more in my direction, that could have landed in my face. It could have been a completely different story."