Wild Kingdom

It's a jungle out there! Well, actually it is a big, open field, with lots of weeds and bugs.

2:00am this morning I wake up to Hubs getting a drink of water. As I wait for him to come back, I hear the screen door open, so I get up to investigate.

There was a noise coming from the open field in front of our apartment complex. A noise so hard to explain and I could never repeat it. It was sort of a squawk, sort of a quack, but also sort of a seagull sound. The noise occured about once every 8 seconds, without fail. We figured it must be some sort of an animal, and it sounded as if it might be hurt. Or, maybe it was a mating call. After listening for a while, I was more than ready to go hop back under my warm covers and go to sleep. Hubs, however, decided to investigate.

A few minutes after he left, I got back out of bed to watch where he went. Hubs was no where in sight. Immediately, my mind took off. I thought, What if there is a bad guy out there who was just making a noise, hoping that someone would come outside to see what was up? I bet they captured Hubs, took his keys and now they are trying the key in each door to find out which apartment I am in. What should I do? Where should I hide? I could go stand outside, on our balcony. Maybe they won't check out there. Finally, I stopped my imagination and told myself to think on true, real things (Phil 4:8). I went to the window again and saw a flashlight beam in the weeds. What a dummy I am for making up that whole story and freaking myself out! So, I returned to my warm bed to calm down.

Hubs came back in about 15 minutes later. He said that the noise would stop as he walked through the weeds, but that the sound was coming from the roof of a house. He pointed the flashlight up at the roof and saw a huge bird. Being 2:15am, I didn't ask how huge, but I am still picturing an ostrich-sized bird on the top of a roof. The bird flew away when the flashlight found him, and the noise stopped for the rest of the night. I did some research this morning and cannot find a bird noise quite like what we heard. It was really a strange noise. Hubs also mentioned that, while walking around in the weeds, he heard some other animal noises and movements.

Well, I was wide awake, now 2:30am, so we talked a little before falling back to sleep. But, how can you sleep knowing Wild Kingdom (or Criminal Minds) is right outside your window?