Katie and I had a lovely warm evening last night to spend camping in the back yard.  I was so tired that we went to bed at 9 — before it was even dark.  As I was gathering up our supplies I glanced out toward the tent and wouldn’t you know it, there was our friend mama deer, standing near the house, munching on a shrub.  Just waiting, I guess, to terrorize us some more.

After she left the yard we settled in.  Sort of.  Katie got up to look out the window at every little sound.  And there was a lot of sound.  Some township nearby was having their local fireworks, so there was the sound similar to distant thunder.  Nearby someone was setting off popping fireworks.  Two bugs managed to get caught under the rain fly of the tent and buzzed around, bumbling into the ceiling of the tent for what seemed like a long time.  The next door neighbor was in the backyard calling for her dog.  Forty-five minutes into our night the deer snorted at us.  Katie didn’t bark at any of it. But she checked each sound out.  No sleeping allowed.

Eventually we settled in to watch the fireflies and the stars, periodically rearranging ourselves, her on and off the mattress, me moving over to make room, moving again to reclaim my space when she chose her own pillow instead.  After two hours of this she began to whine.  I sighed and found my shoes and her leash and we went back outside.  She had to GO MOM!  Geeze!

Back in the tent things were quieter, and we both fell asleep…until I woke with a start to Katie’s frantic barking.  I thought she’d wake up the whole neighborhood and I couldn’t get her to quiet down enough for me to hear whatever was upsetting her.  In between her barks I could tell something was walking around out there, something small, making a cat-like sound.  Didn’t bother me much, but Katie was outraged.  Apparently a lot of night creatures like to explore near sleeping humans at 2:00 a.m. as this was about the same time of night that we were scared back into the house last weekend.

After about 45 minutes of on and off barking I gave up and we went inside, serenaded by very loud bullfrogs in the pond across the road.   Silly dog.  It was such a lovely night and I was enjoying my sleep in the night air. Tonight I’m considering leaving her in with her Dad and trying again.  But I’m moving the tent even closer to the house.

Cause I’m as big a chicken as she is.  I just don’t bark as much.