The Case of the Mysterious Visitor in the Night

Well, it's been an interesting evening. I'm not a twitchy person (ok, I'm not that twitchy of a person), but something has had me on edge all night.

Part of it is that the dog has been on edge all night too. She's been pacing and circling, and had her nose tipped up in the air and ears turning like radar dishes. Unlike me, she is pretty well equipped to detect the dangers that make her hair bristle. I'm no dummy; if she's twitchy, I'm twitchy.

A few times, she started to whine, as she often does if she needs to go out. Lulabelle leashed her up and took her out before bed time. Still, the dog was restless. After Lulabelle went to bed, I had to take the dog out again because she was so insistent. We did a good check of the yard, but found no one and nothing. She wanted to stay out and hunt, but I was having none of that.

We came in, and I, a little irritated, told my 4 legged comrade to go lie down. She went, and positioned herself in the hall, the center of the house and closer to Lulabelle, and laid down, with her head still up, nose and ears working.

At a few minutes before 1am, as I was about to find out if the kid on "Build or Bust" would complete and win his motorcycle or not, I heard something rip into the back porch door. Whatever it was shook the old aluminum door in it's frame, and there was a sound of ripping screen.

It took me seconds to call the dog, grab the biggest knife in the kitchen, and go out the door.

Whatever it was ran. Which is smart. There aren't animals in this area big enough to fight her. I knew from the dog's tone that it wasn't a person - she uses one voice for "hunting and scaring off critters," and a whole different one for having to defend against a person. One voice asks me for help catching things, the other warns strangers and calls me to battle. She's that clear about what we're doing, or, at least, what she thinks we should be doing.

She did exactly what she is supposed to, staying near me when commanded to, and following the scent, so I let her search the yard long enough to determine that whatever it was had run out of our yard, if not further. Then I examined the screen. It looks like it was something in the raccoon/opossum/skunk family of critters. Big enough to yank out a bunch of screen and rattle the door, certainly not a two legged threat, which would have easily opened the unlocked storm door. I'll have to fix the screen, and maybe have Lulabelle move her bird and squirrel foods out of the porch.

The dog's distant ancestors are a legend in Asia. Known for being able to take independent action, being smart enough to even disobey an order so that they can fulfill their primary objective in life, which is to guard people. With her ability for judgment, language, and team work, she's really very impressive.

There was a lot of hugging and petting when we came in, along with some unsalted, baked French fries (a favorite of hers). The mysterious visitor seems to be gone, and my hairy partner is once again snoozing.