It was about dusk the other night. I was taking a walk around the property with the dogs, and the cats, before it got too dark to see anything. Across our lane is some private property and then BLM.

We see people driving all the time over there so seeing lights at this time of night was not unusual. I figured it was someone who had been enjoying a day in the badlands.

But my eyes stayed in that direction as I’m always curious which direction people turn and I like to watch the dogs’ reaction to make sure they don’t always run to the fence to bark at passing vehicles. As I watched, the lights didn’t seem to be coming in a straight line as someone driving down the road; they appeared more to be dancing around in different directions.

Hmmm, maybe someone had lost something and was searching with flashlights or spotlight. I realized I needed to make sure where the dogs were and as I turned to look they were all standing at attention near me, basically in guard formation and they began to growl softly.

It was the type of growl that I can distinguish from seeing a stray cat or something totally foreign to them. This was something they seemed almost frightened by.

I passed it off as the time of night and the fact that the old dog can’t see as well and the young pup seems at the ready at anything strange, especially at night.

But, curiosity got the better of me so I ventured down the lane to the fence to see if I could get a closer look.

I wasn’t frightened for my safety, as I was protected by dogs that were hovering very close by, but I was nervous. The type of nervous where the hairs on your neck and arms stand up and mine were at full attention.

I got to the lane and the lights were still darting around, sort of in a circle but since I was now closer I could see that the lights were actually above ground, by my guess 20 to 30 feet. This was not someone using flashlights to search for something.

This was truly a UFO or UFOs rather, because they were, at least to me, unidentified flying objects.

There the four of us stood at the gate, me mesmerized by the lights, the dogs not wanting to leave my side, when suddenly the lights began making wider circles and the dogs began ferociously barking. This woke me up from my daze when all of the sudden the lights moved up headed right for us, albeit now probably 100 feet above us and zoomed past us, over our house and on into the distance, rising higher as they disappeared into the now much darker night sky.

When the lights disappeared the dogs returned to their normal selves playing and wrestling as I walked back to the house wondering if Alan was going to believe my tale.

If he didn’t, he could ask the cats, which I had forgotten about during the whole episode. Apparently at some point they had returned to the porch and were huddled together with bushy tales and hissing at every noise and movement. They were still unnerved by whatever had just happened.

And, as luck would have it, Alan had been on the phone and never saw the lights. He seemed to believe me but I think he was a bit skeptical.

How about you?

Are you skeptical? A believer? Or are you an astute reader knowing today is … April Fool’s Day?

Happy April 1 everyone, may your tricks and pranks today be filled with fun and laughter.

Originally published in 2017.