An Intruder in the Night

Last night we had internet problems, and I could not post.  I admit I was also very tired, having not felt well during the day.  Coupled with strenuous animal watering, it was all I could do to finish chores, plant a few plants, and come in to make salads for our dinners.

I went to bed before the evening news, I was so tired.  Keith stayed up a little later.

This morning, early, before 4 AM, Lilly Ann became restless and wanted to go outside.  Keith got up and let her out, and pretty soon, we heard barking from the yard.  It was her alarm bark, and it moved up and down the yard, out by the garden.  Keith finally got up and got the strong spotlight, and shined it out there, but didn't see anything.  He called Lilly, who came, and kept barking inside.  Pretty soon Gertie, in bed with me in the big bedroom, began to snarl and face the window.  I got up and put Hannah out, and brought her back in, and settled in for what I thought was another hour of drowsing and saying my morning prayers.  Instead, both Gertie and Abbie, who had joined me, were stiffened and snarling at the window.  I had already gone to get the flashlight again.... and I shone it out under the raised window.  I shined it up and down the yard, it illuminates clear to the road.  I shined it down on the half-finished deck, thinking that it was a possum.  As I brought the beam back up, a man walked into it's light!  The dogs began barking furiously, and Lilly began again. 

I ran to awaken Keith, who had laid back down in the spare room.... and he began to dress... I had called out to the man, who began talking incoherently.  He kept talking the whole time, I could hear him as I ran back in the bedroom.  Keith dressed and went out on the deck, asking me to stand by the door in case we had to call the sherriff.  The man began to talk to him, and pretty soon (amongst the barking dogs inside with me) Keith leaned towards the door and asked for his phone.  I got it for him, and saw him let the man make a call.  Then they headed out to the gate.

The man was lost, and had been wandering outside all night, losing his phone in the process. He was drunk or high, Keith thought, and almost incoherent.  He lived miles from us, out near Lake Perry (the other side of Lawrence).  Keith didn't know if he had been at a bar or a party, but called his wife (or so he said)... and Keith took him to the road, told him how to find the filling station two miles away, and sent him on his way in the dark. 

We are the first house on the road.  We are two tenths of a mile in, with a ten acre pasture on the corner that runs east and west, and a wild ten acres full of brush directly across from our house to the west.  Our neighbors across the road live so far off the road to the south of the wild area that you cannot see their house.  Our neighbors to the south, Kathy and Troy, live on the other side of our shop, and you can't see their house from our deck.  Keith has always said that our house is a target, and because of that, he bought a handgun which is kept unloaded, but accessible. The incident early this morning left me very, very shaken, because Keith travels and I realized that it could have happened while he was on the road.  Lilly and Ranger scared the guy, their barking inside was loud and persistent, but still.....

We believe he was drunk or high enough that he would not be able to find the house again, but Keith was actually going to drive around (he left at 6:15) and see if he could find a wrecked car or anything else that gave a clue as to the guy's presence.  I asked why he had not called the sherriff to at least get the guy and keep him somewhere until he was in his senses again, but Keith wanted him off the property, warned him never to come back, and told him that he was lucky he was not shot. 

This is the second time we have had strange people come here... last summer's sick lady with the dire threats against us left at the gate accusing us of being witches and warlocks was unsettling enough.  (This was the lady to whom we had tried to give cold water and food to on one of the hottest nights in the summer, who had asked if she could pull her car by our fence and sleep in it that night).   It is scary to try to help people any more, and that is very, very sad.  I prayed for the man after I got back in bed for a bit, but as the dogs were all unsettled, we finally got up and started our day.  Even now, I should be showering for work, and will do that in a minute.  Lilly Ann is on the porch, still on alert.

Here are Butch and his girls, liberated for a while last night, wandering in the pasture.  These girls were brought up in the feed room, and do not understand that Lilly Ann could eat them all in a minute, so I have to watch them closely when they are out.

And the lovely Angel, on the perch in their pen when I put them back in:

I have three more porcelains like her, who are also lovely birds.