And then.. my house got broken into...

I think I'm a little shocky.

We were really lucky. Really really.

Robin was gone to work all day, I was house sitting at the Efingers and I had my dogs with me, so we weren't home. Yazoo was in her crate (unfortunately- she probably would have been a pretty good deterrent) but Poe was out in the house. Yes, a 45lb Husky was in the house, VISIBLE and no doubt waiting at the back door as they kicked it in- not that she's aggressive, but there would have been some noise, for sure- and they still broke in. They pried the front screen off, but couldn't get in the window- when that didn't work, they went for the window above the sink- no go- and then they just kicked in the back door, which is all glass. They tracked muddy footprints all over the carpet and, of course, there is glass everywhere. They got into Robin's room first, snagged her little flat screen and rummaged through her things, but it doesn't appear that they took her jewelry, they left her DVD player, nothing besides the TV seemed to be missing.

They hit my room and the guest room and found nothing of interest- I keep some (substantial) cash in my room and it was not very well hidden, so I'm really lucky it didn't disappear. Judging by the footprints, they were within six inches of discovering it. Needless to say, its now VERY well hidden. The only other thing of value in my room is my printer and it was untouched.

They also got Robin's nice camera from downstairs, but left the lenses. They tried to grab the Wii but left it sitting on the floor connected amongst glass and mud.

Of course, Poe got out, but she stuck close enough to the house that Robin caught her pretty much as I was pulling up.

So, aside from some damage, only the TV and camera missing. We're lucky they didn't vandalize or steal a lot more and I'm infinitely grateful they didn't find my cash. That would have been crushing. Robin and I both had our laptops with us (that would have been the next worse, we have so much on those), I didn't leave the Efingers all day, so had I not been house sitting, I would have been home... would that have stopped them? Yeah, probably, but in the case that it HADN'T, I'm glad I wasn't home. Because I wasn't home, my dogs weren't there- they also would have been out- but who knows how that would have ended- maybe they would have been enough of a hassle and they wouldn't have broken in- if they'd have gotten out I can't imagine what I would have done, especially if something happened to them. The husky has some street smarts, so I wasn't as worried, but my heart still stopped when I found out she was missing. You can only assume the worst.

The police officer was very nice, he did a good job and was able to get some partial prints off the Wii- hopefully it will help him. Apparently there has been some activity of this kind in our neighbor, so we've had a private security service patrolling and, ironically, there was a neighborhood watch meeting this evening with about 8 police officers in attendance. He did assure us that they have a suspect, the break-in was very similar to the others that have been happening in our area so they have no reason to believe it was not the suspects. They're basically just waiting to get everything sorted out to apprehend them. (I sound so CSI, don't I?)

Amy talked me down on the way from Efingers to my house and kept me from totally freaking out and Robin's bosses all came to make sure everything was okay. Porter's parents drove in from Portland and helped us clean up and kept us company until Porter arrived, and he and I barricaded the door with a fence panel from the backyard (convenient, no?) and it sounds like Robin and Porter are planning to stay there overnight. I left Yazoo with them because she is the best alarm system we have and I have my guys, obviously, and Poe with me, since our backyard is going to need to be shop vac'ed to get all the glass up- she can walk Yazoo and Poe can enjoy the fenced in backyard here. So I'm feeling pretty comfortable- I have six dogs with me.

Regardless, I do really want to learn to shoot now. Jerry and a couple other of my adult friends have mentioned it a time or two and there's no time like the present, seems like a good idea to have a hand gun in the house and I know most of my friends will agree. A baseball bat by the bed, too.

Right now I'm just trying to de-stress and debating between crying, vomiting and just falling asleep right here.

So much for boring, eh?