hackles rising

I was sitting in my home office working on an article, when all of a sudden I heard a menacing, deep-throated growl. Getting up to investigate, I’m certain that I heard strains of scary background music from a horror movie as I told myself, “Don’t go in there!”

Cautiously entering the living room, I saw both Willa and Lexi in a crouched-for-spring stance, lips curled back, teeth bared, and hackles standing on end!

Eyes trained on the window, I saw what they saw—the shadow of an armless hand waving back and forth! At least that’s what it looked like through the partially-angled verticals.

Drawing the verticals fully back, the armless hand turned out to be a fallen leaf enjoying a gentle back-and-forth ride on gossamer thread—a diaphanous strand from a spider’s web.