Sorry this is long.

Last night I woke up to hear the dogs tails wagging and feet shuffling (they were swishing and hitting the wall — they don’t have loud tails [G]). I could hear someone talking softly to them, and figured my son was coming in and trying to keep them quiet. I could hear someone saying “Shhh” and “sit, sit” (obviously did NOT know my dogs). My husband got up and glanced briefly at the back door (which is a straight shot down our hallway from our bedroom door) and thought our other son was here. After a minute, he got up and went to see what was going on. Well, a strange kid was trying to come into the house! He had the back door open and was trying to get past the dogs.

Traveler, Chester and Fiona were lined up and sitting/standing at the back door, but not moving, still being very friendly. Maddie couldn’t be bothered (nothing interrupts her beauty sleep), and I think Mac was in bed with us.

My husband starts talking to this kid (and I am still in bed, not quite hearing what is going on) and then I hear him say, “no I will call for you, what’s the number?”. He shows the kid that he is writing a phone number down, and then proceeds to call 911. He tells them what is going on and they say to stay on the line, but don’t let on who he is talking to. He pretends to talk to “Lauren,” whoever she was, and asks the kid his name, etc. (getting praise from the 911 operator). I get up and start to go into the kitchen, but Pat waves
me back and now locks the kitchen door (we never have locked the door in 21 years).

I go into the living room to see what is going on and see 2 State Police cars speeding down the street and into our driveway. (we found out they had 10 cruisers looking for these kids) It was like a TV show!! They yell “get down off the stairs” over and over again, the kid is yelling (and obviously drunk), and next thing we know, mace is being used. The drag him down the stairs and out into the driveway, where he is laying and yelling. My son comes upstairs and wants to know what is going on, and we watch from the living room windows. By now the 3 brave Beardies who wouldn’t let this kid in the house are all clustered together on my bed! Real brave.

So my husband threw some clothes on and went outside to make a statement (and found out that mace stays in the air for a while). They had more police come and the EMT’S. This kid never shut up the entire time.

Apparently from what my husband found out (and what we saw on the news today), there were 2 kids that crashed a car a few miles from us. They had them in custody on site and then they escaped. The kid at our house was the driver, but they swapped places (or tried to say they did) because he was drunk. Somehow he ended up in our neighborhood, and why he choose us I don’t know, but in his brain he was looking for a phone to call a friend to come and get him. After a while they put him in a cruiser and everyone left.

I ended up laying in bed watching tv for a while, since I was wide awake and about 1:30 heard dogs barking in the distance, then more sirens. Turns out they somehow got the other kid’s phone number and convinced him to give himself up. WHEW!

So the dogs prevented this kid from coming in and helped to capture someone who was driving drunk, crashed a car, escaped from
police — and they also added breaking and entering!!! (I don’t think they can charge him with stupidity.)

Chester, who is visiting, decided Canada was a lot quieter than here and that we needed extra protection, so he would sleep with us [LOL].

My heroes.

A very tired Val