Imagine my horror...

when I was awakened by the siren of our security system at 2:30 this morning. Jeremy and I just had a security system installed last weekend. I feel very safe and secure with it on, but very early this morning I felt very frightened as I listened to the wailing siren. It took Jeremy longer than I wanted to wake up, which only added to my racing heart rate. Finally (after 15 seconds), Jeremy got out of bed and shut the alarm off. We both sat in the bed unsure of what to do; eventually we got up the courage to investigate. Before we made the journey into the unknown, I checked to see what set the alarm off. The code on the alarm panel said "04" which is the code for the motion sensors. My thoughts immediately went to our dogs that sleep in their crates in the basement. We have a motion sensor around the corner from their crates, so it could only be set off if one of our dogs were OUT of her crate OR if an intruder made it in a window or door without setting off the alarm before reaching the sensors. One time before I have forgotten to lock Lily's crate and was greeted by her at the top of the stairs the next morning. I was hoping that was what had happened this time and not the other option. We very bravely opened the door to the basement to find our beautiful Lily staring at us; I had forgotten to lock her crate. She was the intruder. I wonder what she thought when the screeching siren went off. I can picture her covering her ears with her paws. We were relieved but VERY awake. Needless to say it took us a while to unwind after that experience. Now I have mixed emotions about our alarm with the VERY loud siren...