Scary Brake Failure

[Ninety7PrixGT]

This afternoon was a wonderful experience. Drove car this morning to school which is a 25 mile interstate trip on way. Came back, everything fine as usual. Go get in my car to head to school again for my afternoon trip, pull out of driveway, I live on a pretty good hill so back out and up it, head down the hill like every other day, go to apply brakes at the bottom before turning onto the main road, and go straight. Thankfully ripping the e-brake worked, but nothing else.

97 Contour GL. Brand new rotors, pads, and calipers on the front less than 8 mos ago. Have yet to see any leaking fluid. Level hasn't gone down very much. Didn't hit any hard snow banks, live it VT, this morning. About the only thing I heard when I tried to stop was a loud yelp/meow like I hit a frigging cat or sumthing when I put the brakes on.

After taking off the right front tire, I was scrapping off some kind of furry mess with an unidentified amount of bone I think from the top outside part of where the pad meets the rotor. Cat tail, mouse, I don't fricken know, but still, don't think it would explain the brake failure. So I'm at a loss now. Took both fronts off and checked everything out. Like I said no leaks, caliper pistons are still solid and the usual difficult to push in. E-brake light for some reason stayed on, but fixed that problem amist my tinkering.

One question, how important is the brake fluid cap? I ask because every cap I've ever taken off, the rubber is usually all attached to the inside of the cap creating a good seal. I can take mine right out, in fact it fell out the first time I took it off. I know it plays a role in keeping the vaccuum/pressure in the lines but don't think it would cause the failure I've got going on. Especially since I put a latex glove on the cap and then the rubber part as a temp fix for ruling stuff out, and that certainly didn't solve anything. Bled the brakes multiple times, nothing.

Any thoughts? I'm going to replace the master cyl and hope either that's it, or nothing else, rule out another potential problem. Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks.