My FIL lives up in the hills, and the back of his property borders a wild area. Occasionally at night you can hear coyotes just across his fence and the dogs go crazy. The other night when Bryan and I and the kids were alone in the house, all three dogs went nuts barking at the back door. Ruthie ran to let them out and I stopped her, mentioning that there might be coyotes out there.
Obviously, I was not thinking clearly when I said this to an almost five year old city girl.
Later when it was time for bed, I told Ruthie to go out to the camper and get into her jammies. She had done this countless times, this running back and forth between house and camper. But shortly after she opened the sliding glass doors leading out to the back patio, she came running back down the hall, crying hysterically that there were “Hawaii’s out there!” (I love the mis-spoken words of preschoolers)
Let’s just say getting the kids to go to sleep that night was…challenging, and I basically had to stay in the camper with them until they were both asleep.