When the author refers to the “rickety, rotting footbridge,” “ominous words,” “Wild Big Cats- Keep Out” and the rifle, she creates a mood of foreboding darkness.  We feel that something bad is going to happen.  The story is a newspaper article about a legend of a supernatural cat, so it makes sense that the writer would want to create a spooky mood to help the reader feel like he or she was there.  The last sentence is particularly ominous.

When I explained I was lost and had just had an unnerving experience, he took me into his kitchen and sat me down at a stained oak table while he made me tea and talked about the beast.

From this we know that the speaker is struggling and frightened.  She talks about the “beast,” and being lost.  All of the components of a typical horror story are there, and the reader begins to get more and more interested.  We are in suspense, and want to know what is going to happen next.