Long night

I felt like a slug, sliding out of bed at 8:30 this morning, but I'd only had about five hours of sleep at that point. My body ached. Was it a hangover, or did a truck run over me while I was sleeping? Neither. I'm one of those people who needs her eight hours every night. Last night, I was awakened by our barking dog and yipping coyotes around 1:30. Just as I was about to fall back asleep, they started up again. Then at 3:30 a howl sounded like one was right outside our bedroom window. I shrieked and was on my feet running for the window before my brain could even register what my body was doing. With only half a moon lighting up the landscape, I couldn't see much, and I didn't see the coyotes. My husband was on his way down the stairs and out the back door.

Shoving open the window, I realized there were two packs of coyotes. The loudest ones were just to the east of the pond, and they seemed to be competing with a pack to the southwest and a bit farther from our house. That's the direction of the goats that are across the creek. They're being guarded by the donkey who tangled with coyotes a month ago. How could I go to sleep with all of that racing through my mind? I was also thinking about finding the sheep to the east side of the pond two nights ago -- and hoping they'd had the good sense to stay in their pasture last night.

At 8:30 this morning, my husband called from work to wake me up. Margaret answered the phone, and he asked her to go check on the sheep before waking me. Luckily, she was able to report that they were all safely in their pasture.