Well, I had an interesting night last night!
I have no idea if any little kids will come around tomorrow night, probably not, but the teenagers were out in full force last night and so were the police! My little house is on a huge lot that takes up half of a city block, street to street. The other half of the block is a city-owned parking lot, separated from my yard by just a shallow drainage ditch. The back edge of this parking lot is only about 15 feet from the side of my house! It's the hangout for the high school kids and I've called the police several times when their music is loud enough to rattle the glass in my windows, or if I see them drinking over there, honking horns, or throwing their garbage and bottles into my yard. Yes, I am turning into that mean ol' neighbor lady!
So last night they were pulling in and out of the parking lot but nothing outrageous - yet. I had put leashes on two of my dogs and had just opened the front door to take them outside ... at the exact same moment that two of these moron kids were getting ready to step up on the side of my front porch, roll of toilet paper in hand! Freebie, my bigger mixed breed, who has a bark like a dog ten times her size, started barking and snarling and trying to get at them! She has never bitten anyone but she is very protective of me and wouldn't hesitate to take a chunk out of anyone she perceived as a threat to me. My little Trace (my youngest Boston), who is a sweet gentle cuddle-bunny, started barking too, mostly because Freebie was barking. Of course, these kids had no idea that it was purely coincidence that I came out the door with the dogs when I did. They probably thought I was going to shoot them or set the dogs on them! I hollered out a few choice obscenities in my most authoritarian "
worked-in-a-prison-for-24-years" voice, the kids let out a yell, the toilet paper went flying up in the air, the kids started sprinting for the parking lot and cleared that ditch like a couple of track stars, jumped in to their car and went right over the curb to get out of the parking lot! Since Halloween can get out of hand here I called the police ... again ... and they sent an officer who had a talk with the kids still in the lot and most of them left. Funny in a way but a bit creepy too. I'm 65 years old and far from helpless, but I live here alone and the thought of someone sneaking in to my yard and right up on my front porch make me feel a little "violated", like my space was invaded, if you know what I mean.
And not even an hour after the police had dispursed the kids from the parking lot, all four dogs started barking and snarling towards the front door, the hair on their backs standing up on end! And this time I was MAD! Enough was enough, and I got Freebie on a leash and whipped open that front door loaded for bear! And there were no kids anywhere! And then I looked down and saw this enormous POSSOM strolling across my front porch! I didn't know that possoms even got that big but this one was fat and at least two feet long, not counting the tail! He was slowly ambling across the porch, gave me this look like, "Hi there!", and shuffled down to the end of the porch where I feed the outside cats. He ate a few bites of cat food and got a drink of water from their bowl and went on about his business! And I am so, SO glad that I didn't call the police again on what turned out to be a friendly possom!