The Annoyances of a Ground Floor Window

My whole life I have been stuck with living in one storey houses. Split entry does not count as two storeys. I have always wanted a 2 storey home. Houses with a staircase going up to a second floor have always been equated with classy to me, even if the house is small. Also, since I was a child, I always dreamt of having a house where on Christmas morning, one can run down the decorated staircase and into the living room to see the lit tree with presents.


Rather, I have been stuck with plain, one storey homes, and my bedroom window always has ground right below, which really freaks me out, because I am scared of people breaking into my house, through my bedroom window. This was never a concern of mine in the house I grew up in until my parents put in a swimming pool and built a deck under my window. I was no longer safe. But I comforted myself with the fact that I lived in a small farm town in Ontario, and the only thing behind my house was a forest filled with happy deer who liked to sleep in our backyard.


Then we moved here, to the massive metropolis of Halifax. Now, instead of a forest behind my house, there is another house. I've lived here for a few years now, and even though I have come to accept that I live in a safe neighbourhood, I still cannot sleep with my window open, even if it is a billion degrees in my room, because I am scared of people breaking in. When my window is open, I always hear twigs breaking, and other creepy city sounds. But, I try to comfort myself with the fact that my whole street is comprised of people who think it is ok to let their cats loose to roam the neighbourhood streets, which would be fine if all the cats in the neighbourhood didn't congregate in our backyard. We figure it's because we are one of the only ones who do not have a dog, thus, our yard is the quiestest and safest for these poor creatures, so they are probably the ones walking around at night, breaking twigs. But the paranoia is still there.

Today I was sitting on my bed. The sun was pouring through my window. I was staring at the wall opposite me, when all of a sudden I saw a shadow move on my wall.


Then I saw it was the shadow of a cat. So I got up, looked, and sure enough, there was a cat walking on my window sill. I shooed it away.

I wasn't so startled because this has happened before. I have learned. The last time this happened, it was a beautiful sunny morning. I had just woken up, and could see that it was sunny. My window is right above my bed. I thought it would be nice to look out the window. I leaned up, and this is what I saw:





"Sh*t!" I yelled.
I nearly had a heart attack.
The cat was staring right into my room, it's face pressed up against the glass.
I hit the window and scared the cat away.

I need to start putting up traps......