What was that noise?

So last night had me totally freaked out thinking we were going to be victims of a home invasion/burglary. Around 10:00pm I started feeling tired, so I went to bed and watched some t.v. before I fell asleep. Brian stayed out in the living room playing on his computer/watching t.v. out there (this is typical of us). Fast forward to just before midnight (no, I still hadn't fallen asleep yet, lol).  Brian had shut off the t.v., and came into the bedroom so I thought he was going to come to bed and sleep (cheering in my head, because it's not always easy for me to fall asleep without him in there). Boy was I wrong.  Instead, he asked if I had my phone in the bedroom-odd question because he thinks I'm silly for bringing it in (I always joke that I wanted it in the room with me in case anything ever happened-no land line so we would need some sort of communication, lol). I told him yes, that I did have it in with me, but asked him why. He said that it sounded like someone had knocked on the front door and then he was hearing noises along the fence and bushes. Okay...so I'm now officially FREAKING OUT-doesn't take much, lol!!! I told him I had heard a noise against the side of the house like 5 minutes ago (wall behind our bed). He showed me a rather large kitchen knife and told me it was probably him, as he was outside checking things out. Okay...if I wasn't freaked out before, seeing Brian a little flustered over the situation had me DEFINITELY freaked out!

At this time our motion detector lights out front were on, and we heard another little noise.  Brian heads back out to the living room to sit in the dark with the knife and 'listen' for someone some more.  Not wanting to go out in the living room where there are big windows in front and french doors in the back and where the action was happening, I start pacing back and forth between our bedroom (looking out the blinds) to the playroom (also looking out the blinds).  This went on for about 10-15 minutes. Brian decides to look out the living room window at the same time that I peek out the playroom blinds. And what do I see!?!?  This:

A bunny rabbit sitting at the bottom of the front steps.  So I go to the edge of the hall-cell phone still in hand, and whisper to Brian.  He says he just saw the same thing.

So, Brian opens the front door (I'm still not convinced that everything is a-okay so I stay put in the playroom still looking out the blinds) and looks around from the doorway a bit before deciding to take a picture of this rabbit.  Then he tried to shoo the rabbit away, but the silly thing just runs around in our yard.  (at this point I'm standing in the doorway and notice clue #2-a carrot sitting on the ground right inside our gate).  I ask Brian to go check it out.  He goes to get the carrot, and I investigate further: I ask him if it has any bit marks on it from the rabbit.  He inspects the vegetable and finds no teeth mark. Brian throws the carrot away and goes and picks the rabbit up and escorts the thing out of our yard.

My adrenaline was pumping so much still after all of this that it made sleeping awfully difficult. Both Brian and I laid in bed wide awake until around 2:00am before we calmed down and fell asleep. (it made my 6:30am wake-up a bit brutal! lol)

So...were we victims of a home invasion: No! However, someone had to have been up by our gate, put the carrot on the ground, and then ditched their rabbit in our yard, which is creepy enough for me!