Interuppted By A Bandit On My Way To Aurora

I had just settled back, much like Plainclothes Detective C-7 Elijah Baley, for the long trip through the stars to the distant planet Aurora. Baley in a spaceship and me in a chair on my patio, under the light of one incandescent bulb and the stars, Isaac Asimov's - The Robots Of Dawn - in my hands and open in front of me. As I read on about Baley commencing his trip to Aurora, I was interrupted, suddenly aware of a low and really guttural growl coming from behind my right shoulder. It was Pepe, our adult male Chihuahua, who had just been at my side . He was growling as I had never heard him growl in all the 6 plus years we have owned him. I turned to see what it was at which he could be growling like that, automatically reaching for the Glock 26 on my side, half expecting an intruder to try to make his way into my back yard. Then as I twirled around toward the commotion, there he was, masked and all, a thief in the night climbing over my gate and with one bound my mutt Mimi sprang out of the side doorway growling at him as well. The intruder jumped from the fence and was then, in a split instant, climbing up the Dogwood tree next to our fence. No sooner had I gotten my flashlight out and on him than he was already 15 feet over my head and still climbing. Suddenly, as Pepe kept on barking and growling wildly, I heard a swooshing sound to my left and thought maybe there were two intruders but then realized it must have been Mimi jumping over the fence into our neighbor's yard to position the intruder between herself and Pepe who was still on our side of the fence. I called out to Mimi to come, and she ran round, from the neighbor's yard, to the front side of our house and up to the side gate which I opened for her to come back inside. As I opened it though, Pepe ran outside at once.

I went after him without delay. I was not really concerned about the burglar. I had never seen one in our area before but it was treed and why should I worry about a medium yet good sized raccoon anyway. Pepe was nowhere to be seen and I called and called. He just took off like a bat out of hell once the gate had opened. Maybe by then, the raccoon had come down and headed the same way, I did not know. All of a sudden, I head someone down the block calling out in the darkness - "here he is" and I saw Pepe running back toward me. Jus as he was about up to me, he veered sharp right into our neighbor's lawn to head toward the backyard. Right then, I also heard a commotion in the backyard, I guess the bandit was making its escape in that direction. I had forgotten about Mimi and just kept calling Pepe. (Mimi jumps the fence with some frequency, Pepe has never run out of the yard like that on his own and I was much more concerned about him winding up getting thrashed by the coon than I would be for the larger Mimi.) Well, in a moment or two, Mimi came running over to me as I called for Pepe, and thankfully our little rat Chihuahua Pepe was right behind her. I opened the side gate and they were both back in our yard. I got them both inside right away, then accounted for Lucy, our other adult Chihuahua, and for Roxie our 65 pound mutt, they were still both inside. Actually, Roxie had come down and come out once she heard the commotion but by the time she was outside, I think the raccoon was gone so she lost interest right away and went back inside. Luckily the puppy A-B (said like Abby but meant as in "A-B Something" or "A-B Normal" for the brain that was used in the movie Young Frankenstein) was at my future son-in-law's place with his two Chihuahuas.

I have lived in this house for about 20 years now. I have seen a  lot of squirrels, a rabbit or three, a few Opossums and have seen damage done to one of the tops of my plastic garbage cans that I figured was from a raccoon (or rats) - but until tonight, I had never seen one of those masked critters in the flesh anywhere near our house. That was a bit of a treat and a bit of a scare with a minor pain in the butt trying to get both dogs back on the property but it was fun in the long run. Had I lived in most places, other than in the overpopulated part of NY in which we live, I might have blasted that masked bandit and would have been BBQ'ing or smoking it by tomorrow. Oh well, as it turned out, he lives to steal another night and I can go back to my book.

All the best,
Glenn B