Our new hero!

Here is a picture of our dog, he is now our hero and not just our dog!
At 4am today he started barking up a storm. We just happened to have brought him in for the night, which we rarely do, and he was chained to the back door. (he likes to roam the house and poop in the kids' rooms) Apparently something disturbed him from tearing the clothes out of my suitcase (packed for a trip to the hospital!). Donnie went out to the kitchen and checked out the windows and didn't see anything, so he came back to bed after he got the dog calmed down. And I praised him but good because I want a dog who will let us know if something is going on at night.
We laid in bed and talked awhile, we couldn't sleep because we know that Ratchet does not bark at nothing, he has never barked in the house, not even with our kids sneaking in and out of the house or strangers knocking at our door at 2:30am! I wanted a "real dog" that would bark if something was going on!
Then, at 5am the dog starts an even bigger barking ruckous! We look up and see flood lights beaming into our house. Donnie looks out the window and sees a police car out there and someone walking in our yard! As he gets dressed to deal with things I went to calm the dog down but found someone at the back door shining a light in our house! But he turned away as I was coming in the room, so I looked out and it was the policeman. I opened the door after briefly debating on whether he was really a policeman or not. Oh, my dog wanted to take him out something fierce! How dare he snoop in our home!
Our neighbor behind the alley had a car window smashed in! So the officer had looked around our yard too, and found Donnie's car unlocked and what looked like a gun in the backseat. It was his hunting bow, actually a borrowed one, in a case. The door would normally be locked but Drew used the car and forgot. Had he locked the door the window would have been smashed. The burgler had been in the car digging through the glove box, but apparently didn't have time because not even Donnie's watch was stolen out of there.
I feel bad for our neighbors. Maybe if we'd left the dog outside the burgler would have been frightened away and not messed with their car. But, if we'd left him out he may have broken off his chain (he's one BIG brute of a dog!) and attacked, or been injured/killed by the burgler.
At any rate, I feel so much better now that I know our dog will alert and protect us. And I feel so very blessed that things happened the way they happened for us, we weren't robbed, and no one was hurt and our window was not smashed in, which would have to be immediately fixed since its freezing weather here in MN. And none of our other vehicles, which we never lock, were broken into.
Ratchette, our hero!
But, I still want a little yippy dog who will bark at every little move made in the house at night. I want to know when the kids come and go, when the mailman comes, etc. Donnie has been turning me down on getting a little dog. He said that I can get a little dog when I am finished having children. We won't know I am finished until I hit menopause, helloooooooOOO. But tonight, a close friend's daughter came up to him with a flyer about a small dog that needs a home and instead of telling her to hide that thing and NOT let me see it, he actually SENT her to me to ask! He's still not sold on the dog, but I think I'll try to convince him tonight! ;-)