a scare in the night..

Last night Jonathan and I both headed up to bed around 10:30ish as we normally do during the week. We both read for about 1/2 an hour and then eventually fell asleep around 11:00 or so. After being sound asleep for what felt like a few hours, I remember vaguely, sub-consciously, hearing Murphy growl all of a sudden. Unsure if it was my dream or real life, I didn't really react.. I was definitely half asleep still but a little more aware of my surroundings. A few minutes later it had become clear to me that Murphy was now up and moving around and had walked to the top of our stairs.. and was growling even more intensely. That's when both Jonathan and I realized that, ok, we are not dreaming, and Murphy has heard something that has startled him, and that's not a good sign.

Jonathan quietly hopped out of bed to join Murphy at the top of the stairs. Although our hearts were pounding, we were both completely silent waiting for another sound that had set Murphy off to begin with. During those 5 minutes I was silently laying there thinking how grateful I was that 1.) I had a guard dog and 2.) I had a large husband and 3.) Jesus was my ultimate protector. After about 5 minutes of listening, neither of us heard anything. In the meantime, Murphy seemed to have lost interest and went back to his spot to lie down.

Jonathan got back in the bed and I asked "is everything OK”? Jonathan replied, "I haven't heard a single noise in the last 5 minutes". I did a recap of our nightly routine and I had specifically remembered checking both locked doors and I knew that all the windows were locked. I knew there was no way that anyone could get into our house via doors or windows without waking us up. That's one advantage of an old and creaky house. But then I asked Jonathan, "well, why was Murphy growling”? Then it occurred to me "has Murphy EVER growled in the middle of the night like that"? Jonathan confidently answered "No".

We both knew that neither of us would fall asleep without knowing for sure that the coast was clear downstairs. At 2:00am, Jonathan woke Murphy back up, I turned on the lights in our bedroom and I grabbed my cell phone incase I needed to call 911, and Jonathan lead the way down stairs to check things out.. I followed at a distance.

There were no signs of intruders downstairs.
Murphy, who had acted as a superb guard dog, certainly seemed to enjoy the late night adventure.

Here’s the funny thing... I didn’t even remember the whole ordeal until about five minutes ago.