This land used to be theirs, and they’re not letting us forget it.

Charlotte, NC is the nation’s 15th-largest city, one of the largest banking centers, and a magnet for newcomers. Once known as “The City of Trees,” trees disappear every day as developers fight for every available patch of land to build houses, offices, shops, and parking lots.

You might think, sitting snug in your suburban home less than two blocks from a busy road and two miles from one of the buzzing business districts, that you are alone.

And you would be so, so wrong.

There are the cute little Walt Disney mammals. Mice, shrews, chipmunks, squirrels, bunnies, possums, raccoons.

Tiny green lizards and tiny brown tree toads.

Songbirds – of course! Robins and cardinals and jays and wrens. Mockingbirds. Beautiful songs, sometimes mixed with the honking of geese and hoarse cawing of crows.

Down by the neighborhood creek, turtles and snakes and sometimes a blue heron. Once, incongruously, a pink flamingo that blew into town after a Florida hurricane. The big birds look nerdy as they walk along the bank, all long legs and knobby knees. But when they take off in flight, they turn into tiny, colorful pterodactyls.

Sometimes I see a group of turkey vultures, gossiping. I know they are harmless. It’s carrion they feast on. They have no interest in living flesh. Still, a chill goes down my spine as I wonder … what do they know that I don’t? What has brought them to my neighborhood? Who has died – or is about to?

I breathe a sigh of relief as I walk by and they ignore me. So, I wasn’t the one they were talking about.

Occasionally there is a fox. The poor things always look starving.

And, of course, deer. We have at least two herds in this neighborhood. (I say “at least two” because each herd is led by a different buck.) Deer can be magical to watch – especially in the winter, around Christmas. And in foaling seasons, when tiny wobbly fawns appear with their mommies.

Deer can also be startling. They’re curious, for one thing, and love to look in windows – from afar OR near. It’s jolting to look out the window after dusk and see a deer, nose pressed to glass, staring right back at you!

They are so quiet, so motionless, blending into the shadows. Several times I’ve almost bumped into one in the darkness, stopped only by something very LARGE barking/snorting/spitting right into my face! The first time it happened, I elevated six inches out of my Skechers.

And then there are those I am not quite so fond of …

Coyotes. Coyotes are just mean. Every now and then a few move into the neighborhood and cats go missing. Small dogs, too. Coyotes even gang up and take down small deer.

Snakes. I know, most snakes will leave you alone if you leave them alone. However, none of my furbabies were ever blessed with an inordinate amount of common sense, and dog plasma reacts faster to snake venoms than to cat or human plasma.

Once we had a rattlesnake nest in our crawlspace. It sounded like a tiny maharishi band.

Copperheads are the most common venomous snake in Charlotte, and no Spring is complete without a number of sightings. Newcomers are always freaked out by this, and long-timers have been known to have some fun by leaving brown hoses coiled near the street, or even tossing a brown sock into their new neighbors’ yard.

Owls. I have a love-hate relationship with owls. I am absolutely obsessed, BUT they are birds of prey, and I hate to hear small things scream. (On the other hand, they do keep down the snake population.)

They will also, sometimes, go after cats or very small dogs. And that’s the issue. My Romeo is a sturdy little lad, but he looks like he’s one of those tiny dogs that is mostly hair. Plus, he is EXTREMELY close to the ground. An owl could never carry him off, but one might attack, mistaking him for a small, fuzzy white bunny. Or a large white caterpillar.

Romeo’s a good boy, though, and so, since my injuries, I often let him out the front door without a leash to go potty on his own. He knows the rules – “Stay where I can see you!” And for the most part, follows them.

10:00 PM on a Tuesday, standing on my front porch, watching Romeo as he roamed palely in the moonlight.

From behind me, a loud, deep voice. “Hoo!”

I jumped. It sounded like an owl – and a big owl, at that – was right behind me! And what was this “Hoo” business instead of the usual “hoo hoo-hoo hoot hoo hoo?” What did a single Hoo mean?

“C’mere, Romeo!” I called.

Romeo’s left ear flicked back, but otherwise he gave no sign of having heard me. He’s spent too much time around cats.

“ROMEO!”

He toodled away from me. doot de doot de doot …

“HOO!” Louder and more insistent, and right in my ear! Was this a warning?

Romeo continued toodling off in the opposite direction.

My cane was inside, so I turned sideways, grabbed the railing, and crab-walked down the steps. Then I stumbled through the yard at a fast, shuffling limp (“Mommy, there’s a zombie lady in that yard!”) and attempted to pick up Romeo. I bowl with a 10-pounder, but Romeo’s little bowling ball of a body is almost twice that. My hands were partially around him and I was not letting go. I was well aware that if we fell, we’d both be lying in the grass until the mailman came the next morning.

If, that is, there was any mail to be delivered. Sometimes we went several days without mail.

Somehow, I managed to stagger up the steps with him clasped in my arms. Romeo’s attempt at damage control – kissing my entire face, licking my eyelids, sneaking me Frenchies, and trying to stick his tongue up my nose – didn’t help.

And then, suddenly …

Suddenly …

Darkness settled overhead.

There was a sudden silence, so complete it was more than just the absence of sound. It was as if sound had never existed.

Then it was gone.

Something fluttered to my feet.

An owl feather.

It had been a warning. We were here first, before you cut down our trees, razed our homes, and built your fancy houses … We will be here long after you silly humans have gone …

I carried Romeo inside, closed the door, leaned against it.

Outside in the night, something small screamed.