Street Gang

I was out early the other morning - I think about 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. with my dogs outside. I saw them. I had not seen that many in our neighborhood before. They were traveling in a group of five or six. I guess they like the old adage 'power in numbers'.  

As soon as I saw them, I tried to hide. And, I tried to get my dogs back to the side of our house where they couldn't see them. They were quiet, moving eerily through the neighbor's yard. They all wore the same coat, could be some kind of gang thing.

They saw me, but didn't say or do anything. They just silently walked under the street light. I could not tell if there was a leader, or if they just walked along as a group following each other.

A few years ago, when I first moved into this neighborhood, I would have been shocked to see them. I guess. I had never seen them up close before, just from a distance when I would travel to other parts of the county. Were they branching out? Did they need more territory? I don't know. A few years ago, I would have been a bit in awe of them.

I guess I was still in awe. But now there is fear there, too. Especially for my dogs. I understand that I don't own the neighborhood but I didn't like to see them so close to my home. I wanted to yell at them to go back where they belong. Yelling out at that time of the morning may not have been a good idea. I have no idea how they would have reacted to my outburst, anyway.

I went back inside the house and waited about thirty minutes before taking the dogs out again to do their business. I wanted to make sure the gang was gone. One of their kind is the reason I am driving a different car today. I hit one of them with my Civic in December of 2009. He ended up dead alongside the road. My Civic was totaled. I loved that car. You can read about that episode here.