It all started one afternoon this past winter. I was out doing something in my yard... I think I was actually taking down the Christmas lights...when the hostilities began. The onslaught was sudden, unexpected, and clearly deliberate.
My brother lives next door to me (Yeah, we actually let a family member live that close because he is really good at fixing houses!) and he happened to also be outside at the time. When the attack began, I looked over at him with a puzzled look on my face. Plus, I was looking for backup.
He looked over at me. Our eyes met.
"I believe you're under attack", he said. Tell me something I didn't already know. That wasn't exactly the kind of backup I was hoping for!
And indeed I was under attack. This small dog had run directly into MY front yard, and had begun to bark ferociously at me. ME! He was a bully, he was! If I took a couple of steps toward the dog, the dog would take a couple of steps back. "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" seemed to be his motto. I could actually chase the little monster out of the yard, but if I turned around or went back to my work, the invasion would resume.
This went on for HOURS. Sometimes, the dog would tire of directly attacking me and would run around to ANOTHER side of the house, and simply bark at the house as a substitute. The odd thing was that MY dog was out in the yard, too. The little attacking ragamuffin was not interested in my dog.
No.It was interested in either me, or the house. The little mongrel barked with such ferociousness that nearly every bark caused the little canine to literally bounce OFF THE GROUND! He's just that fierce!
Finally, I was done with the lights, or the dog tired of the attack. Either way, the battle ended for the day.
But not the war.
In the days following, the dog frequently ran up to me or my house castle, and launched a renewed attack. It always came from a different direction, too, which was odd. He must have milk-bone supply camps and little doggie bunkers hidden all over the neighborhood. Crafty.
This little warrior has tactics, too. One day, I walked out in my front yard to get something out of my car. I happened to glance down the street to the north when up pops the little snipers head from behind some pile of trash the next block over. INSTANTLY, he launched into barking at me, then stopped, RAN down the street toward me, and suddenly darted down the nearest cross street. I thought this was odd, until moments later the little war machine entered the back yard, after running between the houses and continued his attack!
Good heavens.
I tried to get a picture of the enemy for many days and eventually gave up. I did keep the camera on the counter, outfitted with the telephoto lens, just in case. Finally one snowy day, my wife was able to snap a picture of the scoundrel in our back yard. He had begun what is apparently a DAILY attack on our house, and my wife was able to get the camera, go out onto our back porch and snap the pictures you see here.
Recently, months after the attacks began, I was on my porch and the siege was continuing with the little yapper in my back yard. My neighbor was out on his porch and he mentioned to me that EVERY SINGLE DAY he sees this dog run up to our house and bark ferociously, feet bouncing off the ground, and then it disappears some time later, only to return the next day.
I asked my neighbor if he knew where the dog comes from. "Nope" he replied, "but I've seen him come down the street from that direction." He was pointing south. "And also from THAT direction", he continued as he pointed west. "Also, from over there," he pointed east. "Wherever he lives, he sure hates your house!"Um, that's "castle", neighbor-dude.
I think I'm going to dig a moat around my castle. Maybe I'll put sharks in the moat, just in case the little ninja dog swims.
I will win.
