Sometime yesterday while I was at work and my husband lay sleeping having exhausted himself working on the yard, an intruder broke into our home. How he managed to sneak in undetected and hide for what must have been hours, without my two very large dogs sensing his presence I will never know.

I came home at about a quarter to four and found nothing amiss. I greeted the dogs and immediately went in to have a shower, not knowing that less than a half an hour later my plans for a quiet and relaxing evening would suddenly be shattered.

I had just gotten out of the shower and sat down at the computer to read my emails, when the intruder must have done something to alert the dogs to his presence because both began to bark at once. My dogs are not normally barkers so I knew immediately that something was amiss.

The sound was coming from the kitchen and just as I started to rise to go and see what was happening the intruder darted into the bedroom. Before I had an opportunity to even gasp, he leaped onto the bed, stepping on my husband in the process of trying to flee the dogs.

My husband suddenly bolted upright just in time to be struck by our ninety pound shepherd/lab mix as the dog charged after the intruder. Hit from the side my husband toppled from the bed with a shocked yell.

I rushed to my husband’s side just in time to see the intruder scamper under the dresser to avoid the dogs and the falling bodies left in his wake.

That’s right my intruder was the four legged kind. At this point I was not at all sure what kind of animal I was dealing with. All I knew was it was too big to be a field mouse.

I tried to formulate some type of guess as to what the animal was, while I helped my husband to his feet and tried to explain what was going on. The dogs were of no help as they were pawing and whimpering around the dresser, making too much noise to even think.

Finally, enough was enough and I yelled for silence, telling my husband to sit down and shut up and shooing the dogs from the room and shutting the door to keep them out.

I then sat down on the bed, to watch and see if the creature who had wrought such havoc would show himself. It didn’t take long. Seemingly unperturbed by the chase, the yells, and the general chaos the varmint made it’s way out from under the dresser and stood on it’s hind legs. Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief. It was a chipmunk. Not a rate as I had dreaded.