Lack of Judgment

Not long after we moved to the Cabin and before Suzie came into my life I had a dog named Dusty. Dusty was beautiful, all white, one blue eye and one brown. She was wolf-shepherd mix and a very intelligent animal. She also as most animals do, could sense if a person was someone to be leery of.

When we first moved to the mountains, my husband at the time had stressed he did not want ANYONE to know the cabin was there. He didn’t want anyone we didn’t know to know we were living there nor where the cabin was actually located.

That was fine with me, especially since we had no phone or way to contact the ‘outside’ world should an intruder show up. I never really worried much about it since we had Dusty and she was a great watch dog.

One afternoon my husband showed up with a ‘stranger’. He was the son of a man who lived up the road. You know how sometimes you instantly get a feeling of mistrust when you meet some people? There is really no reason other than it’s a feeling inside your gut something is just not right and this person could be a danger in some way or another. That was my reaction to this guy.

And when Dusty became agitated and continued to growl at this person, the red flag went up higher. Of all the people he could have broken his own rule to bring down, he chose this guy!

The father of this guy was an old timer in Omo Ranch. So I guess my husband figured it was safe to bring him down. For the life of me I cannot figure out why he didn’t get the same sense of creepiness from this guy. But then I guess when you are using drugs your sense of creepiness get numbed. Or I should say your lack of good judgment comes out.

Anyway, my husband brought him into the cabin to show him the place. Dusty staying by my side the whole time, quietly growing letting her opinion of this man be known.

We sat at the table and were talking, actually they were talking I was sitting there with a  very uneasy feeling and Dusty laying at my feet under the table continuing to growl was not lessening this uneasiness.

This guy was telling us how he had served in Vietnam and went into detail about killing and being so adept at sneaking up on someone before they knew what hit them. He kept going on and on about how he could blend into the woods and watch people and they would never even know he was there.

Flaming RED flags began going up in my mind!!  

The whole time he is talking about this stuff he keeps looking over at me, talk about that creepy feeling, I had it big time. And it got worse.

He proceeded to go and on to my husband about how someone could come down here and attack his wife and no one would hear the screams. How easy the cabin would be to break into and how no one would ever know what was happening until it was too late.

All I could think about was, of all the people he decided to allow to know where the cabin was, and to inform him of personal things like the kids and I being there alone at times, he chose this psychotic and frightening man!
It was bad enough Dusty and I had the warnings inside about this guy to begin with, but to listen to the things this guy was saying, and saying it so nonchalantly on top of it.

The  most menacing thing was he kept saying over and over again how someone could sneak down here and attack ME and no one would hear the screams, and then threw in a couple more times his ability to remain undetected until it was too late.

After he finally left I ask my then husband, “What the hell where you thinking bring this whacko down to the cabin? You were the one who said you didn’t want anyone down here and you bring someone like that here?” All he could say was “don’t worry about it, he will be leaving soon, he’s just visiting his dad. I don’t think he would try anything and I don’t believe he could get down here without us knowing.” Yeah right, that eased my mind.. NOT!

The first thing I did was of course pray for the Lord’s protection over the kids and I. Thanked the Lord for Dusty as I knew no one could sneak past her.

A day or two later, my husband was getting ready to leave, he was taking the kids up the hill for something, I can’t remember what now. This meant I would be there alone.

I had never been worried about being there alone before that night. I had an uneasy feeling so I prayed for the Lord’s protection again, and that if something was going to happen he would stop my husband from leaving.

Just as he was getting to drive up the road, Dusty started growling and then barking. He stopped and looked back, in his rear view mirror he saw that guys stepping out of the trees.  He came walking out saying, “I told you I could sneak up on you down here. If it wasn’t for that dog you wouldn’t have known I was here.”

Dusty came running to my side.  I silently prayed, “thank you Lord for Dusty and for not allowing this man to show up after they had left.”  

My husband told him he was not welcome and he had better not try a stunt like that again. He also informed him I always had a shotgun when he was gone and knew how to use it. Now that wasn’t exactly true, but the guy didn’t know that! He never showed up again. We found out a week or so later he had gone back to where ever he’d come from.

For awhile I still felt uneasy about being alone at the cabin, but I trusted the Lord to protect us, as HE was at the time the only real guardian I could count on. And He had blessed us with Dusty I believe for that reason.

Unfortunately it wasn’t the only time my then husband used a lack of judgment and put no only myself but the kids inadvertently in danger. Thank the Lord HE never leaves us nor forsakes us and is our very present help in time of need!!