Honestly Officer...part 2

This is the second in what I hope will not be a series of false alarms in which the police are summoned...

Mike was out tonight at a basketball game. The kids were in bed -- the boys asleep and Annie reading. I was watching Grey's Anatomy on the DVR when all of the sudden I heard a wail outside the window.

I turned the volume down on the TV and listened. The wailing seemed to get a little louder and sounded like a baby on my front porch. But it also seemed to be cyclical, as if a recording were being played over and over.

I sat up, called Annie downstairs and muted the TV. She heard it too. An e-mail I received at some point in the past few years popped into my head. Hardened criminals place a tape recorder on your porch and play a recording of a baby crying. When the concerned homeowner opens the door, said criminals attack the homeowner, force their way into the house and commit innumerable heinous crimes.

I'm not making this up. Check it out here. Never mind that this link says the story is false. Just go with me here.

At this point, I'm freaking out a bit. I tried to peek out the window, but didn't want to come face to face with my ill-intentioned killer. So I did what every scared-for-her-life citizen would do, I picked up the phone and dialed 911.

I told the dispatcher about the wailing baby sound I heard outside my window. And I told her that my husband wasn't home. And that it probably wasn't anything, but I'd feel better if the police came to check it out.

Thankfully, the dispatcher was understanding, told me she'd send an officer out, and to call back immediately if I did see someone or if the sound seemed louder or closer.

Of course like a car making a funny noise stops when the mechanic gets behind the wheel, the scary wailing baby noise stopped as I hung up the phone. I looked outside to see Mike pulling in the driveway. I told him what happened and he went to check things out while I waited for the police, who arrived about a minute later.

That's when Mike and the police discovered the cat footprints -- our cat's footprints -- on the front porch, right below the window where I was sitting.

At least the officers did a really nice job of trying not to laugh until they got back into the patrol car.