Dear New Neighbor, we haven’t formally met yet.  However, I couldn’t help but overhear your barking, without interruption all night.  Now I totally understand your excitement.  Our neighborhood is awesome, especially at night.  There are so many animals out and about that you don’t normally see during the daytime.  So it’s only natural to want to say hello to all of them.  In the early evening there are the delinquent Deer who emerge from their hiding places in the woods to wreak havoc in our yards.  As the evening progresses, Ricky Raccoon and family head out for their dinner reservations in our other neighbor’s garbage cans, while Ms. Porcupine scurries off with her friends to gossip about who lost their quills.  Even Mr. Skunk comes out for a late night stroll.  But take the advice from my friend, Milo, and only say hello to Mr. Skunk from a distance.  He has a habit of wanting to share his strong cologne with new acquaintances.

Anyways, last night as it got later, I also noticed that your occasional friendly barking got more consistent and a bit angrier.  Again, I totally understand.  It’s one thing to plan to be outside all night camping under the stars.  However, it’s a totally different situation if you’re outside alone while your Humans are inside sleeping on a comfortable bed without you.  Perhaps you locked yourself out?  Years ago that happened to Mom and me.  We had to wait in the garage until Dad woke up and noticed we were missing.  Trust me, both Mom and I did a lot of barking that night!

I’m not even sure where you live exactly.  Sounds echo here at night, and Mom and Dad were in disagreement as to which direction it was coming from.  However, Mom made Dad do a quick search outside in case you were in distress.  He reported that it seemed to come from one location, so at least you weren’t on the move running with the Coyotes.  None of us recognized your bark though, and we’re pretty good at distinguishing Inky’s bark from Trouble’s bark from Charlie’s bark, etc.  But I’m guessing you arrived in that moving van my little brother, Asa, said he saw yesterday.  Or perhaps you’re not even a neighbor and just passing through visiting friends while on vacation?  We stayed in a hotel earlier this summer, and I lost precious sleep barking because no one told me it wasn’t my job to guard the whole hotel!

Whatever the reason, hopefully last night’s barking was just a random fluke and you got it all out of your system.  I haven’t heard you at all since around 2:00 AM, and we saw no signs of you this morning while on neighborhood patrol.  Paws crossed tonight we all have a good night’s sleep!

Tail Wags,

Chuck Billy