Scary night!

Got everyone fed and let out and brought back in etc. etc. etc. and was happily headed for bed on time last night.  (Yes - out on the sleeping porch.)  But an hour or so after I went to bed, I woke up hearing "something" moving those heavy voltage converters that are on the floor under the head of the bed.  They're part of the cords for the heated mattress pad controls and they probably weigh a good pound or more each, so whatever was moving them HAD to be LARGE!  We're talking throwing them against the wall at the top of the bed!   When I jumped up and moved away from the bed it got quiet.  So I stomped on the floor - still nothing.  I began to think that maybe whatever it was had been UNDER the porch and I just thought I heard it coming from underneath the bed.  So I got back into the bed and stared at the ceiling for a while - couldn't sleep.  And sure enough -- ten minutes or so later I heard it AGAIN!!  Yikes!  Ran inside and got the dogs.  They both went straight over to the bed sniffing like crazy around it.  But then all of a sudden they ran back over to the door and wanted back inside!  Uh-oh!  I took that for some serious advice on their part to get the heck out of there!  So I gathered up my pillows and ran inside for the night.  My biggest fear is that since it sounded really large but did not "run" when I stomped and hollered, and because the dogs decided they reaaaaaly didn't want to go after it, then maybe -- just MAYBE -- it's a big snake!   Ooooooh!  Shivers!  I hope Buddy is as fearless about snakes as he is rats.  If he is, I'm going to ask him this weekend to lift up that bed and check to see what the heck might be under there!  (Mark is back offshore - as he invariably is when disaster of any sort strikes -- so I can't ask him to check it out.)

But until it does get checked I will DEFINITELY be sleeping inside like a "normal" person.  I may not be a normal person when it comes to where I like to sleep, but I'm definitely a cowardly person when it comes to "creatures"!!  If it does turn out to be a snake, I WILL definitely be covering that little -- maybe 2" X 3" -- hole in the porch floor near the bed with a piece of wood or something.  For that matter, I may just get some of that cheap outdoor carpeting and carpet the whole darned porch floor so nothing can come up through ANY of those spaces between the floor boards.  I'm telling you, every time I think about that sound I get the chills.  (There's a lot to be said for being in an office high up in a high-rise building!  At least I can concentrate of my work -- more than I can say at home at the moment.)