Most of you know that Katie and I camp out in the back yard during warm summer nights.  That’s a bit harder to do now that I’m working;  I suppose I could try it on a work night but I think I’d be a wreck at work the next day.  So we have to wait for nice weekend nights before we head out for our camping adventures.

We got the tent out last weekend, Katie and I, and put it up on Saturday afternoon for our seasonal inaugural back yard camp-out.   I tucked it way out at the back of our yard, behind a big blue spruce near the woods.

Just as soon as we were back in the house I saw a mama deer wander out of the woods and walk over to the tent, inspect it then casually continue to the neighbor’s yard.  Hmmm I thought, that was interesting!

So around 10 that night Katie and I headed out.  Me with my phone, my water, my flashlight and my dog.  We settled right in, she plopped down on her pile of pillows, and I snuggled in under my blankets.  We were asleep instantly.

Suddenly Katie was barking hysterically and I was clawing my way back to consciousness aware of some sort of alien noise.  A noise very close to us.  I grabbed Katie and held her tight and she went quiet.  We both held our breath and waited.  Then it happened again.  Three snorts.  Just outside the tent.  Katie wimpered.  I held her tighter.  We stayed still.  More snorting and a stick cracking.  She began to bark.  I shushed her.

Everything went  quiet…and eventually we settled back down.  But not to sleep, no we were both wide awake and on high alert.  Then as we began to drift off the snorting began again, on the other side of the tent.  OK.  That’s enough, I was envisioning some wild animal crashing through our little tent.

I turned on the flashlight, made a great deal of noise and Katie and I hightailed it back to the house.  It was 2:00 a.m.  I got online to find out what makes that sort of noise and guess what?  Deer do, when they feel threatened!  Who knew!?!  Maybe there were baby deer somewhere nearby and Mama was trying to figure out what smelly thing was inside the tent?

Anyway, it was a lot of work to set up camp only to stay out a few hours.  So Katie and I are going to try again this weekend.  I moved the tent closer to the house.

Cause I’d like to make it through the night this time.