What is it with men?

Last night, I took Doodlebug out to go to the bathroom at about 7:15 pm. It was dark already, and cold. As I stood on the front porch, the chill and the silence pressed down on me. Somewhere, a dog barked, and the streetlight cast an eerie glow over our yard. And I heard ... the crunching of leaves nearby.

I froze.

We live on a golf course, and there have been numerous sightings of fox, skunk (I saw one on our back patio last summer mere inches from where I was shutting off the water after hydrating my Swedish Ivy on the front porch), groundhogs, racoons (get the hell out of my bird feeders!) and, yes, even deer.

Our house has a deep creek to the left of it, and it's filled with huge trees and in times of rain runs deep and fast. Otherwise, it's filled with sharp rocks, bullfrogs and hedge apples. That's where I heard the noise, and I felt sure it was an animal.

I called Bill, who got a flashlight and I carried BooBerry out onto the front porch and we turned out all the lights. We listened, carefully, and could hear it, although it seemed to be more behind the house.

Bill, however, thought it was human rather than animal, as he said the sounds were deliberate and slow. He sent Boo and I inside, and proceeded to get a Mag light and walked to the edge of the creek. He began throwing hedge apples into the trees to see if anything scurried off.


It didn't.


So my point is -- WTF? I'm not real sure what he set out to accomplish, but if it was to completely freak me out, it worked. We live in an upscale neighborhood, but I saw searchlights and cop cars in the middle of the night last summer, and that came to the forefront of my memory.

I got about three hours of sleep last night. Men suck.