Creature of the Night

So for the past month or so we've had an animal that comes into our backyard in the middle of the night and makes our dogs flip out. We could see it sitting on the fence post in the corner by the pool, but we weren't able to tell what it was from our vantage point...and since it always happened in the middle of the night, we would just tell the dogs to stop barking from our bedroom window and would go back to sleep. Usually this elusive animal would go away and we would continue with our night's rest. Well, the other night, the dogs started barking around 12:15 am. I got up and told them to stop. Sampson obeyed, but Harley kept at it. I could see him in the back corner so I knew the critter was back. And since Harley wasn't letting up with his barking, we knew that the critter wasn't leaving, and we ended up having to get up out of bed and go outback.

It was dark in the corner of our yard, and with our flashlight shining, all we could see were the critter's eyes. We still couldn't tell what it was though. And since we didn't know what it was, we really didn't want to get too close. Ryan tried throwing rocks at the fence to make it move but that didn't work. So he tried his b.b. gun. That didn't work either. Nothing was even making this animal turn his head. He kept his gaze right on us. So Ryan decided to turn the hose on and squirt it. At first, it didn't seem like that was going to work either, but the critter finally jumped down into our neighbor's yard. When it turned, we were able to get a better view and realized that the critter was actually just a big possum. We were a bit surprised because in over 5 years, we haven't once seen one out here.

Now, as ugly as possums are, I actually have no problem with them coming into my yard in the middle of the night. I figure he probably comes to drink from the pool, which I have no problem with. I just wish he would do it quieter so that my dogs wouldn't notice him and wake the whole neighborhood with their barking.

He hasn't been back the last couple of nights, since he got hosed, so I'm really hoping he stays away. It's been nice not having my sleep interrupted by barking dogs.





I probably just jinxed myself.