The Eyes Have It

 

Four-thirty AM, precise-a-mundo. Beginning the daily quest for ten-thousand steps by taking Mack up to his kennel run for the day, fresh container of water for his calf bucket, which provides his daily libations in one hand, leash in the other. (Leash is about eight feet of quadruple braided paracord....he's a ruff un).

It is raining lightly, the kind of rain that doesn't get you wet, but it feels as if it should. 

I wear my headlamp because it is full dark and downright gloomy. The headlamp lights up every reflector on every vehicle, implement, and tool in the yard, plus the driveway markers and all.

It also lights up two very bright, very white, spots on the lawn about two yards from Alan's four-wheeler, which is also brightly illuminated.

At first I think animal, because it is low to the ground, spaced about right for critter eyes and in a spot where I am pretty sure nothing is parked....but it doesn't move. It doesn't move while I dump yesterday's water out of the calf bucket, rinse and refill it.

It doesn't move when the dog noodles around at the end of his leash outside the run while I do these things. The lights just sit there utterly static, glowing brightly in our direction. I wonder what could possibly be out there a few inches off the ground in the middle of the lawn that has white reflectors that are so close together and so very bright. I vow to go check after I get the snap and the rope and the chain that hold closed the gate that contains my tiny dog each day. (And yes, we need them all!)

As always, I pet him for a minute before I latch them all up.

Then I turn around to investigate the odd lights on the lawn.

They are gone.

I hurry inside and lock the door leaving the poor pup to his fate. After all he is protected by a  chain link fence intended for a much larger dog and he is as fierce as a honey badger on crack on a bad day. He B Fine.

So, in your experienced rural opinions, what was/is out there?

What has eyes that reflect white and face forward, maybe two to four inches apart, six or eight inches off the ground, and would sit dead still. never blinking, for three or four minutes just staring at me? 

Fox? Raccoon? Skunk? Possum? Chupacabra? 

I really want to know.

That is all.

Thank you.