My intention was not to be awake just yet. I did, in fact, stay up all night working on a painting, and I’d thought sleeping in until noon might be nice. But no, the cats had other ideas. Even though there’s plenty of food in their bowls, they simply couldn’t tolerate my being in bed and asleep after 9 am. It’s a shame I can’t set the cats for a specific time, like an alarm, because they are really, really good at waking up humans. Naturally, now that I am out of bed and totally awake, the cats are all in their usual sleeping locations having a nap. Bratty, bratty cats.

In other animal news, Damned Dog was in my yard and at my kitchen window again last night. At who knows what hour last night, I heard an unusual sound coming through the kitchen window, a sound I couldn’t immediately identify. I put on shoes and grabbed my flashlight. Sticking my head out the door, I looked around for Damned Dog, because I assumed it had to be him getting into something in my yard. The sound wasn’t coming from my yard though, it was coming from the plywood walls of the back porch/patio/dog room at the Latinos’ house. It was the sound of a dog tearing its way through plywood. Let me tell you, standing in the dark doorway of my house listening to that sound did not make me happy in the slightest. Actually, it made me very, very nervous. I’ve tried to rationalize my way out of being nervous about this dog, but no, I’m going to go with my instincts on this one and continue to be somewhat afraid of the situation.

When the sound stopped, I went back into the house, settled back into my work in the kitchen, and waited. I knew it was more than just slightly probable I would be having to remove Damned Dog from my yard again. Not a couple minutes later, the cats informed me the dog was near from their lounging spots on the kitchen table (they don’t even sit in the window at night anymore, and I can’t blame them). A couple seconds after the cats left the kitchen in a hurry and hid, I heard the dog snuffling around the kitchen window.

I grabbed the flashlight, turned on the outdoor light, and went to get the dog out of my back yard. I’m tired of doing this. If it were a sweet dog, I’d just be tired of doing this, but it’s a dog that tore its way through a plywood wall, and the first thing it wanted to do when it gained its freedom was get to my kitchen window. I find that kind of single-minded determination on the part of a dog to be somewhat scary. I also find it scary that a dog who chews through plywood walls has thus far been held back by a puny kitchen window screen. If that dog ever truly decides it wants to be in my kitchen, it will be. That screen is no barrier at all to it. So on top of being tired of having to deal with a dog that is not mine, I’m getting really worried about the safety and security of myself and even more so, my cats.

At this point, there is little doubt in my mind that Damned Dog is the one responsible for the death and consumption of one of my resident possums, and there is little doubt in my mind that dog has more than a passing interest in my cats. If he was just interested in, say, being friends with me or interested in the foods I use when making dinner, he’d be hopping the fence and visiting my window during the quite regular time periods when either I am sitting at the window (every afternoon) or when I am cooking, but he doesn’t.

He only hops the fence and shows up at my kitchen window during the predawn period of time when the cats are sitting there waiting for the doves to start cooing and coming out to eat (very, very regular timing too – the cats have fully functioning internal clocks, let me tell you), and he does it during that time period, whether there are cats in the window or not, and the cats have not been sitting in the window until the sun comes up now, because I’m sure having a snarling dog jump at them has put them off the idea of being in their favorite place at their favorite time. The incident the other night scared me pretty damn good too.

Anyway, this dog situation has gone beyond untenable and is well into the realm of SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE RIGHT NOW. Therefore, I am lying in wait for one of the Latinos to be outside, and surely one of them well be at some point, seeing as they need to repair their damn plywood wall again. As soon as I have one of them at the property line, there will be words. There may also additionally be words with some authorities as well, because this has really gone on long enough, and I don’t be one of those news stories where a woman was ripped apart by a large dog whose owners just keep saying it was such a sweet dog and wouldn’t hurt a fly. I know this one has killed at least a possum, would very much like to get at my cats, and I’m not willing to wait and see what else it wants to eat.

Just occurred to me there’s a phone number on that For Rent sign in front of their house. I think I’ll be writing that down. Might need to use it.