A Tail from David Vaughn ....

I have a very active 8-year old male rat terrior named Bubba. Last year Bubba woke us up with loud barks, growls, and a nasty disposition at 2:00 a.m. He seemed to be trying to get me to follow him down the hall way. We felt something was wrong, so I got up and followed Bubba down the hall to the steps leading down to the family room and garage. It was apparent he wanted me to follow him down the steps.

I silently went down the steps and entered the family room. Behind the room is an opening into a storage area that leads into the garage. This storage room is where Bubba was leading me. He would go to the entrace of the room, growl viciously, and look at me.

My gun case was located near the stairway at the entrance of the family room. I opened it and loaded a pistol. I was now afraid that an intruder had entered the garage and was lurking in the darkness in the storage room. When Bubba saw my pistol in my hand, he
became more aggressive. I silently made my way to the opening. As I did Bubba ran into the room and began attacking something or someone. I could tell in the darkness that he was biting viciously. I stepped into the room with my pistol and yelled "Freeze"! At that
moment something hit me on my head very hard.  Stumbling backwards I shot in defense, being sure I shot low so as not to seriously or fatally injure the attacker.

I jumped back, turned on the lights and saw my attacker. Bubba was still chewing on it. My shot had penetrated it. But it was no intruder. What had happened was that Bubba had attacked my wife's new vaccum cleaner, and in his attacking, the stand-up cleaner had turned over, hitting me hard on the head.  She had placed it in the storage room. The light from the street light was just enough to show its form in the room, and with Bubba never seeing it before, he assumed it was a person who had entered our home at night.

I had to return upstairs to comfort my wife and thento tell her I had shot the base of her new vaccum cleaner. Bubba was very pleased that morning for his act of protection for our family. I was very embarrassed.

David Vaughn (drv14)