I’m a light sleeper, so tend to wake up whenever I hear a noise Last night was no exception, W went to the bathroom which woke me up and when he came back to bed I heard this rustling noise. Now normally W sleeps through the noises I hear, I’m slightly paranoid about nocturnal sounds, having been broken into twice (the first time when I was in the house, fortunately that night Jessica and Tamsyn had stayed over at my Mom’s – long story really but did end up with me chasing them out the house). So hearing the noise immediately made me suspect that someone had somehow got into the house. W went to investigate, have to say any self respecting thief might be somewhat put off by being confronted with a tall skinny naked dude. Turns out there wasn’t anyone in the house.  Settling back down, with a heart still racing, I hear the noises start up again – only this time there is more than just rustling, now there are bottles tinkling and tins scraping. The sounds definitely were coming from J’s bedroom. So I sent W off again to investigate, and I peered out the window to see if I could see anything. Nothing. It is now 1:10 in the morning and having checked twice there is no-one else in the house other than W and I, I then lay awake for what seemed like ages listening to the various rustling, tinkling and scraping noises till I eventually fell asleep. We did postulate that perhaps some animal was getting into the rubbish. This morning I went to investigate the potential mess and found one black bag with some of its contents spilt onto the carport floor. Didn’t seem too bad, the significance of there being only one black bag didn’t register until W looked under the house. Whatever animal it was had managed to drag a full black bag under the house! We’re talking a BIG black bag full of a week’s worth of wine bottles (erhum), rubbish and the dregs of suppers gone by.
To say I’m freaked out is somewhat of an understatement. Seriously what kind of an animal drags a black bag under a house! To put it in perspective, I live in a park home which has been added on to, the addition has a gap of about a ruler’s length between the ground and the underside of the ‘house’.Â
We’re semi-convinced it might be a porcupine. A few years back I saw one walking up my parent’s street, they live in the older part of Kommetjie. The lady next door to me also mentioned awhile back that she thought porcupines were tucking into her vegetable garden. It definitely wasn’t a cat or dog, they don’t do that. I’ve come to the conclusion living in Africa is fraught with danger. (*straight face*) I’m also happy to say we’re not sleeping at home tonight (plans already made before the monster under the house appeared), not sure I could survive another night of noises knowing that whatever it is, is not only big enough to drag a black bag under the house, but is right underneath me!!!
Damn freaky.
