The Cat Burglar of Camden Lane.

My mother and Step-father live in beautiful Dublin Georgia which for whatever reason I will always call home, even if I never live there again. It's a typical Georgia town with a town square, corn fed kids  general good community and southern hospitality, not to mention the home of the international Red Neck Games which we are so proud of.

My mother lives in a residential area that's not quite "in the country" but it's not quite in the city either. I guess that qualifies it to be a Dublin suburb. It's always been a great area to live in with pretty much no trouble. That is until recently. My mother is a dog lover as am I and our dogs are our family. Remember that before you ever kick a dog. Nevertheless, Mom has a fenced in kennel of a pretty substantial size on the back of her house. She can let the dogs out the back door so they can run around a bit and do their business before she lets them back in the house. On either side of the kennel is a gate, one for each side of the house. These gateways are where the trouble began.

One morning my mother got a call from a neighbor because her "babies" were playing in the road. Unsure of how they got out of the kennel she retrieved the dogs and investigated to find one of the gates by the car port was wide open. This is a problem understand, because we don't let the babies play in the road! Naturally she started a suspect list of who left it open. I'm sure it started with the usual suspects. My nephew Kameron, my niece Myra, or my step-father. I assure you all were questioned. No one admitted to the deed.

This continued to happen almost daily. When it was evident the usual suspects were not involved her suspicions turned to the neighbors, particularly the neighborhood kids who have always found their way to my mothers property because of the pond which all the kids fish in. There was one kid in particular my mother was sure was the culprit and he/she was doing it out of spite. She started watching like a watch dog into the evenings and never could catch the little booger. It became obvious that this was happening late at night and was not the work of some child.

This brought fear not only to my mother but to the whole neighborhood. Knowing that someone was coming onto her property in the wee hours and casing the joint was nerve racking. The Sheriffs department got involved an began making regular passes throughout the night, watching the area closely. Still, the gates were often open the next morning.

Finally my brother in law set up a game camera with motion sensors to catch the culprit red handed. Indeed it did. The cat burglar was caught in the act. Late that very night the fiend all dressed in black walked up, opened the gate and went through the kennel, opened up the other gate, and was gone. The ONLY way the culprit could possible be identified was the green collar he wore.

Last I heard my mother was trying to find the owner of the black Labrador Retriever with the green collar. In addition she was dreading calling the sheriffs office to inform them they could scale back the patrol. If it had been a neighbor's kid, my mother would have beat them senseless with a broom or if an adult, kicked their teeth in. But not this beautiful dog that was smart enough to open gates. There will be no dog kicking it those parts! The gates are now secured with a quick release clasp. Maybe that will keep him out...........Maybe.

And so is the excitement of a South Georgia town, where crickets still chirp at the stars and the biggest troubles of the night are still a hound getting in the hen house.

I'm going home for Thanksgiving this year - God Bless.