When we camped/hunted in Alaska we would insure to set up the cooking tarp a good 100 - 200 feet from the actual tent site. (And unless there was a reason it had to be closer....200 feet minimum was the rule.) One of my other rules...be it the wife, kids, or buddies, was no food in our around the tent. If you wanted a midnight snack.....tough! Either get up and go to the cooking tarp where the cooler, and other food was...or, wait until morning.

If we had dressed or cleaned any game that day we'd always clean up (water and wet wipes) and when indicated change clothing. Any blood stained clothing ended up stored in a laundry bag at the cook site, (or if we were near a vehicle...as when my wheelchair bound son was along), the "dirty" laundry would go back in the truck. We also took extra hygiene precautions for the wife and daughter during certain times of the month.

As silly as some of this sounds, these few precautions will prevent "most" problems encountered between humans and animals at night. But as an "always measure" as a last resort both the wife and I had instant access to a "fairly heavy caliber" firearm. I was even more adament about that whenever we were out with the kids.

Our children grew up around, handling, and shooting firearms. It demystified the guns as far as the kids were concerned. We took reasonable precautions with the firearms in the home....and our kids were NOT ALLOWED company in the house unless the wife or I was home. That rule was NOT negotiable...and was stringently enforced! As a result we never had "over concerns" about either our children...or guns. And that trust was rewarded! (Now if you put a group of pre-teens or teens together....all bets are off. Individually they may be the most trustworthy person in the world.....but collectively they often behave like they have the collective IQ of a band of drunken monkeys! And no disrespect is meant to anyone....but my memory is not that short either. I have both been "one of those monkeys" in my past....and seen the phenomenon often enough to know it is true.)

When I was a small child I had an Aunt....that I love dearly (she's been gone for over 15 years)...she was nearly like a second mother to me. Often she'd "babysit" me when my mother had to work. But her favorite method of "behavior control" was, "you better be good or the boogey man will get you". Or, "don't go in that room...it's dark in there and the boogey man will get you"! Now we laugh at that today....but when I was a Tot.....I was AFRAID of the boogey man, the dark, the unknown, under the bed, in the closet......you name it....and I was afraid of it. And the funny part of it all was because we frequently moved....I was always in a fist fight with someone. (Had to reestablish the "pecking order"....it's a boy thing.) And I'd fight with an adult just as quick. But when it came to the dark[][][][]! And at that time it was an uncontrolable....unreasonable....fear. You know the kind...you start running because it's dark....and then you run faster because you can't hear if there are foot steps...and then you run still harder because it might be something "supernatural". Yeah, that kind of fear!

It took me into my young adulthood to shake that fear. I think much of the time I spent "night training" in the Army did much to dispell that fear of the unknown. And the dark doesn't frighten me now....(unless I'm unarmed in sections of Camden, Baltimore, etc.). But I do not "fear the dark". And it took alot of deconditioning to get to that point. The same type of deconditioning it took to overcome my inate fear of heights....before I could go skydiving! It took alot of work...mostly in increasing my confidence in my abilities to deal with different situations....and to a somewhat less degree work to just dispel unreasonable fears of the unknown.

It is like any fobia. It requires admitting that you have a problem...understanding the problem....and then laying out a course of action to deal with the problem....and finally working your way through it!

Do you ever look over your shoulder on a dark night........[>:]!