Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Not every alarming occurence means real trouble

I live on some acreage away from town with no real close neighbors, so when my doorbell rang at 1215 am I was concerned about an intruder checking to see if any one was home. At night, I always keep the house dark...inside and out.

So, I quietly set up a proper in-house ambush and sat there in the dark with a thermal and sh*tgun and waited to see what was going to happen.

Nothing....so after some time I went out and did the normal "search and destroy" exercise...... again, nothing.

Hmm.... what?

In the morning, I see that the doorbell is just a few inches above a small ledge...underneath an eave where these little devil packrats had been trying to make a nest. One of these rascals must have hit the doorbell trying to climb up to the eave.

Ahh!.... some ado about nothing.


But, maybe I will have better luck next time!



I guess I also need to get a cat.....

Crisis Abatement Technician

It rang your doorbell. It's just rude not to let it in. But I suppose exceptiions may be made.

Years ago, in the spring, I was banging on my Jon boat, tightening rivets, with a yearling bull moose bedded in the driveway about 40 yards away. He took exception to having his nap disturbed. Well, he took exception to most everything, actually. The neighborhood had named him "Ornery". Over the winter he had charged most of us at least once for little or no reason, except stress, and his personality.

I looked up and here he came. The door was just a few feet away, and I just made it inside to slam it in his face. He stood there with his face literaly pressed against the glass, daring me to come out and fight like a moose. He also had knocked my Pentax SLR off the deck stairs onto the concrete, breaking it.

I think my next door neighbor ( a renegade in his own right) ate him shortly after that, and hang "season", some months away.

My grandparents' house had a ledge along the front of the house from one end all the way to about the middle where the front door was. My uncle's old tabby cat "Tiger" would walk that ledge and play with the doorbell button. My grandad thought it was neighborhood kids pranking them for several days until the afternoon he opened the door to step out and look down the street for the little miscreants. When he saw the little miscreant sitting on that ledge he realized what had been going on. He had to disconnect the power from the doorbell to put a stop to it.

That "search and destroy" exercise puts you at a distinct tactical disadvantage.

Time to spend 20k on new thermals that can ID a packrat at 300 yards.

Imagine if it wasn't a packrat but a lost Uber Eats driver. He could of got away with the food.

Claymores, man, claymores....