Since when did walking my dog become a life/death issue??

Ok, a little background info.. Half a mile from my house there are several large fields surrounded by forest. At the back of one field, there is a very large hill. For about two years every other night, I have walked my dog up to the top of that hill and then back home. My b/f would walk with me on weekends. A year ago, the fields and forests and the hill were all sold to a developer. It is being turned into a subdivision. 50 houses total. At this point, only a handful of houses are built. Three lived in. Most of the plots are still unsold. The main road goes right up to the top of that big hill, where there are three plots for sale. Two are sold. One is lived in now. Problem is, the guy living there is a paranoid maniac!

I still go up the top of that hill about every other night. My routine is just to walk up the road to the top of the hill, let my dog sniff around, maybe sit on a boulder a few minutes, then leave. The road is PUBLIC. I also have permission from the construction company owner to hike on ANY lots that aren’t sold yet. ANYWAY, back to the paranoid maniac.. Quite frequently, going up to the top of the hill, I can recall hearing the man’s front door open, and later close. I never thought anything of it, although I thought it strange that he moved around so much at night, and always just as I got up to the top of the hill, like clockwork! I have secretly nicknamed him “the recluse.” A month or two ago, my b/f and I walked up to the top of the hill. It was dark. We were across the road from the recluse’s house. I hear the door open, he comes outside. After a few moments, he yells “who’s there!?” I yell back “It’s just us, taking the dog for a walk!” Silence. Then I hear whispered “honey, get the shotgun!” My b/f and I panic and run for it, down to the bottom of the hill, about three lots down from the recluse’s house. We stop to regain our wits, and we see truck lights go on way back at the top of the hill, at the recluse’s house. “Oh $%!#” is all we could think. The truck slowly drives a circle around the top of the hill, and the guy has a spotlight that he is shining around (we are far enough away he can’t see or hear us at all). The truck drives down the opposite side of the hill, out of sight (toward another house that is being built down in the woods). We watch, waiting for the truck to come back into sight. We hear two or three gunshots! Silence. Then the truck comes back. Does a few more laps around the top of the hill with the light, then goes back into the recluse’s driveway. We take off.

NEXT MORNING. I bravely venture back up to recluse’s house to apologize for scaring him. All is silent. The second my foot hits this guy’s pavement, he pops out the front door. It’s like he knows the second I am there, like he has been watching me. Creepy. Anyway, so he is standing there, arms folded. “Can I help you?” He asks, in a deep and menacing voice. I explain that it was me out there last night. I say I am sorry for scaring him. “Oh, you didn’t scare me,” he says. (“Yeah, right” I am thinking). “My wife was walking our dogs in the backyard last night and heard you, it spooked her,” he says. I tell him I heard him say something about a shotgun, which definitely made me panic! He says nothing. “I walk my dogs up here at night too, about every other night” I reply. “It’s just me, nothing to worry about” I say. He grunts, and turns to go back inside. Sensing his eagerness to go back inside, I drop the conversation and leave. It was the first time I had ever seen the man, He almost NEVER goes outside. Things seem fine and dandy from this point on, until last weekend.

B/f and I take the dog for a walk to the top of the hill as usual. Broad daylight. The recluse is out in the driveway, getting stuff out from his truck. He stops to watch us, hands on hips. “Good day” my b/f says to him. No reply. We descend back into the woods, onto a plot that hasn’t been sold. We play around with a toad, stalk a moth, look at butterflies and flowers.. My dog suddenly stands up on her hind legs, watching behind us. I glance back. Back behind us, through the trees, on the road, is the recluse and his wife. Watching us. We descend out of sight to do some more exploring. It’s getting dark, so we come up out of the trees back onto the road. The recluse is by his pickup again, hands on hips, watching us. “Good night” my b/f says. No reply.

THE NEXT NIGHT. It has just gotten dark. My mother, me, and my sister all go up to the top of the hill with our two dogs. We sit on the boulders at the side of the road, opposite the recluse’s house, talking quietly. We are there only a few minutes, when I hear a door open. “Whose there!?” we hear the recluse call. My mom calls back, “it’s just us, walking the dogs.” Silence. “It’s such a beautiful night out,” she says. The recluse replies with “don’t like strangers coming up around here.” My mother, laughing, says “we aren’t strangers sir, I’ve lived here 30 years!” “That doesn’t mean anything to me.” the recluse replies grufly. “We aren’t here to cause trouble or anything, we don’t mean you any harm” says my mom. “Oh yeah, well what were you guys doing down in those woods” he says, anger creeping into his voice. “Just looking at wildlife” replies my mom, surprised. “Yeah, whatever, I think you all better leave now” says the recluse, angrily. We hear a door slam shut. We leave. My mom calls the construction site owner (Bill) about the recluse. Bill says he will talk to the guy, let him know we are not a threat and have every right to be up there.

TONIGHT. I go up there to the top of the hill again, it is dusk. Just me and my dog. We are absolutely silent. Yet again, it is like clockwork. I was up there only a few minutes, when I hear a door open. I pretend not to notice, and go on about my business. I leave. As soon as I am out of site of the front of the house, I hear the door slam shut. Several questions come to mind.
How does this guy know when I am up there??
Why does he hate us all so much?
How long before he snaps and shoots me!??
And what am I to do about this guy anyway? He’s insane!
I don’t know yet whether or not Bill has talked to the recluse about us. I wonder what his reaction will be. I am considering taking this to the cop who owns the house right down the road from the recluse’s house, just to find out what he has to say about it. I have every right to be up there, and it’s gotten to the point where I feel that my life is seriously in danger every single time I exercise that right! I keep hoping the recluse will move. He doesn’t seem very happy with his new environment… (If he doesn’t like strangers, why on earth did he move into a subdivision!!?)

*sigh* I hope I can make it to my b-day without a bullet in my back!

Aww.. She looks a little like mine! My girl HATES other dogs too (wants to kill 99% of the ones she meets) which is yet another factor that makes it so hard for me to walk her places. Basically, I can’t go anywhere where I know there are dogs running loose. I also can’t go anywhere where there are lots of people, because she is shy. And I can’t drive her anywhere to go for walks because she won’t tollerate being in a moving vehicle! (Seriously, I have to WALK her to the vet’s now, because she will not ride in the van).

Muzzling her isn’t an option. She is very sensative, and panics BAD when I try to put anything around her muzzle. I can’t even get a gentle leader on her.

My mom has been here 30 years. I have been here 21 years. He has been here 3 months. Anyway, when my mom told him how long we had lived here, he didn’t care. It just seemed to make him angrier! But yeah, he actually fired about 2 or three times that one night.. Thankfully, he wasn’t shooting at us. I have no idea what he was shooting at. Warning shots, maybe? No doubt, if my b/f and I hadn’t run when I heard the guy tell his wife to get the shotgun, we WOULD have had a gun in our face! I can’t beleive he was bringing out firepower that night.. I even called to him to let him know it was just a lady walking her dog! How much of a threat could I possibly be?? Especially that night when it was just me, my mom, and little sister…