Wally Avett/Cherokee Scout A dead groundhog tempts this Martins Creek coyote to stretch high for its supper from a trail camera.
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If you insist on thinking the absolute worst in any situation, then your imagination can take over and terrorize you.
A verse from the Holy Bible, King James Version, has become one of my favorites:
Psalm 34, verse 4 – “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”
Last year, a newly installed motion-sensor light at our back door suddenly came on full bright at 2 o’clock in the morning, first time ever for us.
Our old wooden house naturally makes a lot of small noises, it creaks and groans and pops. Temperature changes, and high winds cause a lot of it. And I usually ignore these sounds.
But instantly my bedroom was flooded with high-intensity bright white light. Could not be ignored, nor the concern or panic or fear it brought.
Self defense for home
A writer and occasional novelist, I’ve got as good imagination as the next man, working overtime right now.
Is it a burglar, maybe a meth-stoked crazie with a gun? Prowlers, intruders?
As a law-abiding, tax-paying homeowner, I’ve got guns, too. A revolver in the nightstand and a powerful flashlight in reach. There’s a riot gun nearby, too, if needed.
But what to do?
If I just step up to the locked storm door, I may be in danger. All the time knowing it’s probably an animal that tripped the light’s sensor.
I take a quick look in the illuminated yard area, steps bathed in bright light. Nothing suspicious in sight, can see well under a three-quarter moon.
Barefoot, I silently slip through our familiar home with no gun or light for now. Peeping out through the blinds at empty yard on all sides. Heart rate up but not drastic.
Sleeping wife is only other person in the house, I hope. Don’t want to waken or, God forbid, shoot her.
Stay inside or go out?
Maybe I should grab the 12-gauge and walk out onto the deck to survey the backyard. Quickly rejected, don’t know location of possible threat.
Why would anybody burglarize us anyway? We have nothing of real value. TVs are all small by today’s standards, don’t buy or wear jewelry, piano is too heavy, vehicles too old.
Wide awake, after long minutes of patrol, it finally happens. There is movement down the long hall.
Most burglars probably don’t wear white nightgowns so I realize it’s my bride, 58 years and counting, on the way to the bathroom.
She said her vote was for a stray dog as the culprit. We were both a long time getting back to sleep.
But what if I had been carrying the .44 special and firing it in panic at ghostly objects?
My vote for coyote
Next morning I walked the scene, looking for animal hints. Would have come unglued if I had found a fresh cigarette butt but thankfully there was nothing.
Except for a fresh place in the red dirt where something had dug into a mole tunnel. My Florida friends tell me coyotes are world-class diggers.
It could have been a deer, raccoon, possum, bear, etc. But I strongly suspected a coyote, had been getting pictures of them on my trail cameras in nearby woods.
Later on, we became used to sensor-light going on about once a month, sometimes from electrical surges, often from rabbits which live underneath two utility buildings.
Fear in the night is a good thing to forget about – reset the thing and go back to bed.
Wally Avett first wrote for the Cherokee Scout as editor in 1969. His books are available as signed copies at the Scout office in Murphy. Call him at 837-5531 or email wallyavett@gmail.com.