POACHERS!

Yes, I thought this would be the biggest story of the camping weekend. I was completely wrong.

On our way out from camping on the back of our property, we discovered two men on the front of our property... WITH GUNS.

Pictured below, you can see one of the men, with his shotgun, and a beagle at his feet. The two were apparently rabbit hunting.

They, of course, did not have permission to be there.

WHY I FLIPPED OUT: If you read my earlier entry, then you know that Mike and Annie were exploring the property earlier that morning. Mike, being the good Daddy he is, dressed Annie in her orange, but still, the thought of people with guns, hunting for furry things, when my dog is running around, terrifies me. Let me rephrase... I blank out in my mind. I can't begin to imagine what would have happened if Annie came upon one of their beagles. Well, I can imagine part of it: she would have killed it. No doubt. So, imagine you are a hunter, and a dog comes out of the woods and starts attacking your dog. You have a shotgun. Hence, the rage that consumes me when I think of my dog, completely vulnerable like that. Let alone the man behind her, who would jump the guy who just shot his dog out of rage. From bad to worse to worse to worse.

We called the Game Warden. The two men waited for 20 minutes for him to arrive (!?!). All the while, I'm snapping pictures of them, of their truck, their dogs, their guns. One of the guys took pictures of Mike, on our land, claiming that HE would press charges on US for trespassing. Nice. The Game Warden shows up and writes them both $470 tickets for Trespassing with Intent to Hunt. He explained that they could pay the fine, or fight it in court on Feb 19th. The "I'll-charge-you-for-trespassing" guy smarted off, saying he would be fighting it. The Game Warden demanded to have both the tickets back, issuing 2 additional tickets for trespassing on land which is adjacent to ours. So, math majors, that's $940 each for the two guys. Plus, instead of having the option to pay it early, they must appear in court. Which means we must appear in court.

JUSTICE DAY: Feb 19th, 2009.