Okay, Dh and I were asleep in bed last night when I started hearing what sounded like someone snooping around our window. The dogs were going CRAZY and I thought, "Hmm, I do believe someone is trying to break into the house!"

DH was sound asleep, so I shook him and said, "Babe, I think someone's trying to get into the guest bedroom window."

He said, "Mmmkay."

Then I said, "Since you're asleep, I'll shoot him if he comes in."

So, I went to the dresser, got the gun case, opened it up and set it on my bedside table.

DH then rolled over and said, "Don't forget to take the safety off before you shoot him, otherwise it won't work."

"Okay, honey. I will. See you in the morning."

THEN WE WENT BACK TO SLEEP!!!! Can you believe it?! Turns out it was just a cat (I found the paw prints on the window ledge this morning), but still! We should have been more alert! Apparently we were so comfy sleeping that we couldn't be bothered with burglars!

When I told him that story this morning, he had no recollection and didn't believe me until I showed him the opened gun case on my table. I suppose if we're going to be that complacent about people being in our house while we're sleeping, we should start locking all the doors and windows, huh?!

Yikes!! You guys must have been comfy!

About a year and a half ago, not long after we moved here, we heard a loud noise downstairs shortly after going to bed. We have several cats and they all sat up on the bed and started growling. (That was enough for DH, that convinced him there really was something downstairs!) He went into the safe to get the gun but it was dismantled and the slide was locked up downstairs (long story). We hadn't unpacked completely yet so he looked around through the boxes in the bedroom and found the closest thing to a weapon - a bottle of wine! So downstairs he went, wearing nothing but boxers and brandishing a bottle of riesling over his head - my hero! I waited upstairs by my son's bedroom door just in case there actually was someone in the house, 6 months pregnant and revved up on adrenaline - all you other mothers know how that goes, don't mess with a mama bear!

Later we figured out what the sound was - one of our cats had gotten outside and when she tried to get back in, freaked out and crashed into our sliding glass door trying to get in.

Well, at least your DH got up! Those riesling bottles are pretty dangerous, though. Isn't it funny how pets make us freak out more? If I hear a noise and the dogs are asleep, I roll over and go to bed. If they start barking, I'm looking for the source immediately.

Yep, my cats are like my barometer of safety in the house, if that makes any sense. They won't do anything to protect me but several of them are jumpy so if they are laid back and relaxed then I know everything is OK. A couple of them won't even come out if someone else is visiting the house.

Last night we got home from the store about 8:30 and my 3 year old pushed the front door and it opened! I had turned the lock but the door is sticky and it didn't shut all the way. DH is at sea so it's easy for me to be jumpy by myself. I walked inside and one of my skittish cats was sleeping on the couch and the other was curled up asleep on the bed, so I knew there wasn't anyone in there. I still checked all the rooms but I felt a lot better seeing that the animals were all relaxed.

kestrel, my DH spends a lot of time at sea too, and I am always jumpier when he's away. One Friday night last year the kids and i came home and my back door was standing wide open and had a note stuck to it. I wouldn't even go in, just backed out and got my Dad and brother and made them search the whole house, basement to attic. What I figured out later was that I hadn't latched the door securely either, and a neighborhood kid had come knocking and the door must have come open. I deduced it was a kid because when they found the house open, they decided to squirt the dish detergent around on the floor. And in the meantime, the furnace man had stopped by and left me a note. Wierd night!

Kim, you guys must have been pretty tired!

Scary stories but funny too! I have more than a few...

My best friend and I were home alone while her parents went clubbing (the most AMAZING couple I've ever met- mom had her toes amputated at age 43 but still went to clubs requesting Aaron Neville songs with her boot on!) and we decided to bake brownies. It was one of those nights out of a movie- stormy, dark, intermittent lightning flashes. The phone kept ringing but when we answered, no one was on the other end. At this point we were getting kind of jittery and my best friend decided it was the perfect time to tell one of those chain email stories about a woman cooking then going to answer the door and being stabbed by the knife she was using. Then we realized that the knife we had *thought* we had taken out was gone. Freaking out, we turned off the oven, grabbed the poker and shovel from the fireplace, and ran upstairs screaming and locked ourselves into a guest room. 4 hours later, her parents come home to EVERY light in the house on and two terrified girls! It turned out the phone was broken and it was just her grandmother calling.

My exboyfriend/current best friend/future husband (confusing, eh? :P) has the FUNNIEST story though. After his parents moved the family back to Nebraska from San Diego and got a divorce, the family (minus his dad) moved into a creepy old farmhouse outside of Lincoln. His sister was having her 12th birthday sleepover with a bunch of friends when his sister and mom decided to play a prank. They took those pool fun noodles and banged them against the tin roof to sound like gunshots and started screaming. Pete, not being let in on the joke, jumped from the 2nd story balcony clad only in his boxers and ran to the highway to flag down a car. One of his friends from high school (he was 16 at the time) stopped and drove home to call the cops. One cop car came to pick up Pete while the others went rushing to the house. When he got back to the house, the cops from the other group came over laughing and explained what happened. :P It's much funnier when he tells it, but he's a very jittery person (keeps a "ghetto bat" he found growing up in a poorer neighborhood in San Diego next to his bed, calls 911 when he hears loud noises on a regular basis...) so that in no way was an overreaction for him.

charolastra00:
Both stories... hysterical!

What great stories! I have to add my own:

I was living in a fairly seedy neighborhood about 20 years ago and we got burglarized while on vacation. Two days later, my husband was gone somewhere and I was alone and I heard rustling around on the back porch. Assuming it was the burglars coming back for a second load of goods, I called the police and told what I thought was happening. The operator asked, "Do you want to speak to the officers when they get there?" "No," I remember saying, "just have them take the person away." After about 5 minutes, I was getting nervous because I still heard this same sound so I went to the back door, banged on it with my little 22 derringer and hollered out "You'd better get out of here because I have a gun and I called the police!"

The answer I heard was "woof." It was a stray dog! Thank God I didnt have to face those cops red-faced because I called the police on a stray dog.

L

I'd rather be embarassed in front of the police than maimed or dead!

My story's not to do with intruders, but kind of interesting. I'm not sure what I believe when it comes to ghosts, but living here makes me wonder sometimes. They say the ghosts from the Battle of Okinawa (WWII) are still here. (The Americans actually landed on the beach where our apartment tower is.) Anyways, DH was deployed and I was just stepping out of the shower. I felt something touch my back. I freaked for a second and after calming myself down, I told myself it was the shower curtain. ...but I was standing in the middle of the bathroom, away from the shower curtain, the towel racks, everything.

What scares me most is you have a gun!

Well, ThinGirl, DH and I grew up in South and Central Texas. Owning a gun here is commonplace. Living in the "ghetto" of San Antonio, my dad always had a shotgun hanging above the door and a pistol locked in his gun cabinet. Out of my immediate family, 4 of 5 of us have our concealed handgun licenses and so does DH. As many car-jackings and muggings take place every day, we feel it's important to be prepared and protect ourselves. And just a note, police-issue mace is illegal on the streets of my part of Texas. Consumer available mace is little more than chili water in Texas and what Texan can't handle a little chili in their eye?

Right now, being just 60 miles from the US/Mexico border, illegal immigrants, coyotes, and drug runners are often spotted/captured/found dead. Sad as it is, the illegals won't think twice about breaking into your kitchen while you're sleeping to steal food. Most of them won't harm you and are just hungry, but you can't tell the good ones from the bad ones, right?

Also, guns will always be in our home, because responsible ownership is an American right we take seriously. An alarm system doesn't protect you, you protect you by any means necessary. Any person willing to break into my home while I'm there needs to be willing to take a bullet as well. Now, not to sound like I'm bloodthirsty or anything, I would like to note that DH and I are well-trained shots and will always aim for the legs or the arms after firing a warning shot and giving the intruder time to change his mind. We won't shoot to kill unless absolutely necessary.

Finally, 90% of our late-September through early-March meat comes from harvesting animals with our guns. It's our way of life. Some may not agree with it, but I promise you I won't show up in Ontario with my handgun. That's not who we are!

~Kim

Very well said Kim! I grew up in a household with guns. From an early age we were taught gun safety, which I believe is the crucial aspect of gun ownership. (DH is a correctional officer and regularly has his life threatened by inmates who say they'll come after his family when they get out. Knowing that, there is no way I'd give up my gun.)

I thought I would make a note that "coyotes" in this case does not refer to the animal variety, but people who get paid to transport illegal immigrants across the border town and in to municipal hubs. (Usually they are US citizens because it is easier for them to get through border checkpoints with minimal scrutiny). Being immersed in a "border culture" all my life, I forget that some people may have only heard of the four-legged coyote!

And thank you, Dixie. I feel the same way you do about most law enforcement officials - they need their guns to protect their families as well as the general public!

Not that I have any problem with other people having guns, but I cannot justify one ever being in my house or presence. I did have friends with concealed handgun licenses (which made no sense- I lived in the richest area of Georgia with NO VIOLENCE issues) and made it very clear to them to keep them away from me. There was a shoot out behind my high school involving one of my friends (who sadly was actually one of the shooters) and all involved were fire fighters and one was heading for police academy. In high school, they were on the 4H sharp shooting team. It's not as if they didn't know what they were doing. They were high on drugs though and even good people with a serious problem (which I believe you can be good and still be a drug addict) can become murderers like that. I was always pretty anti-gun for myself before that but it's completely cemented in me now. Gun safety was taught as children where I come from too, but several children did die or were seriously injured- either by gun or bbgun.

My secret weapon is knowing Spanish, karate, and mace.