I think June saved me from a terrible fate

Someone posted on another sub something about security and for some reason, it reminded me of a really weird occurrence that took place when I was in college. I thought you all might get a kick out of it.

When I was ~20 years old (I’m F), I subleased a friends place for the summer. It was one of those houses built for college students, in a subdivision that’s all college students. The house had four bedrooms, I rented one bedroom but the other roommates were out of town for the summer as well - so I was alone.

Coincidentally, one of my friends had a younger sibling that needed to find a home for her rescue pit for the summer. I’ve had boxers all my life and always loved pit bulls, I’d always been curious. To this day, I’m so glad I had that dog, I swear she saved me, possibly my life.

I’m obsessive about two things bc of who I am as a person: cleaning and locking doors/setting alarms when I leave or I’m alone (which meant I was locking and setting the alarm a lot that summer bc I was alone)

The first night I had the pitbull, her name was June, I was a little nervous if I’m being honest. I didn’t know until my friend dropped the dog off, but my friend’s sibling had JUST rescued this pit…like less than a month ago (clearly, I should have asked more questions). I was nervous bc this dog was a bit apprehensive about me and fresh out of the shelter or rescue, where ever my friend’s sibling found her - this was clear by the way she interacted with me and the home surroundings.

It was clear June had been abused. This dog had scars all over her body and by the looks of it, had recently semi-recently given birth. Also worth noting, June was HULKED-OUT. This dog was absolutely JACKED.

I’d rehabbed a dog before, so I felt I was up to the challenge! After all, I had the entire summer and it was just June and I.

Note: This house had those magnetic-fob locks. A door at the front of the house, which faced the rest of the houses in the neighborhood. There was also a door at the back of the house, which faced a sort of alley, where I parked my car. I locked any door, any time I used it, as well as the door to the bedroom whenever I went to sleep (I had June in the bedroom with me). There was an alarm on the house but the girls that actually lived there (remember, I was subleasing), never set it up and didn’t have the desire to do so, which meant I was relying on the locks.

Night One: I get into bed, direct June to the comfy, plush bed I’d put together for her (laid her toys in it, super soft blankets, the works). I guess June decided, “nah,” bc the next thing I knew she was in the bed with me, facing me with her head (and all those teeth) a few inches from mine. I barely slept bc I was so scared I’d accidentally roll onto her foot or something, scare her and end up with my face eaten off (yes, I know this is silly but it’s what was going through my mind as I laid awake, staring at this massive, absolutely unit of a dog.

Night Two: Same thing, except I fell asleep. I woke up the next morning to June staring directly into my soul. We’re bonding!

Night Three: we spent the evening watching movies, snuggling, I shared my pizza crusts and she was definitely feeling the love bc she finally let me scratch her belly and started to act like a puppy, and less like the recently released inmate.

Morning after Night Three: I wake up and it’s still really early in the morning, as in, it’s like 6:30/7 a.m., I usually got up around 9 a.m. for my class at noon. As I’m coming out of the sleepy stupor, trying to get my bearing and understand why the hell I’m awake so early, I clock June.

June is absolutely SNARLING at the bedroom door, body-slamming the door, sniffing (while snarling) the base of the door, lunging over and over at the handle of the door.

It was absolutely terrifying, but I wasn’t afraid of her. I quickly realized, something or someone is right outside my bedroom door and jiggling the door handle (which I’d locked). I do live in TX, so I grabbed my 12-gage that I kept under my bed and racked it (it’s a very, very old and very loud gun). When I racked the gun, everything became VERY quiet.

M = Me RG = Random Guys

M: “Who’s there?”

RG: “Maintenance! We’re maintenance. We didn’t mean to scare you! We’re here to fix the dishwasher.”

M: “I didn’t put in a maintenance request. And the dishwasher is in the kitchen on the first floor.”

RG: “Uhh yeah we were told no one was here, I’m training a new guy and thought I’d show him what most of the houses look like inside.”

At this point, June is losing her ever-loving mind and I’m armed, kind of annoyed that these idiots have woken me up so early. Then it dawns on me, I’d dead bolted the doors. Maybe the maintenance people had some way to bypass the deadbolts, I honestly don’t know - this was time when the magnetic fobs were kind of new (or new to the apartments near campus anyways).

I should have been more scared, but I could tell these guys were sh*tting their pants between hearing the monster on the other side of the door and my gun racking. So I crack the door a smidge, just enough for them to see the gun, June foaming at the mouth and so that I could get a look at their uniform, to confirm whether they were real servicemen or not.

Weirdly enough, they didn’t have on any uniforms. There were three men. Two men looked like they’d had it rough, they were maybe in there early 40’s? And the other guy was in his mid-20’s? All three of these men were dirty, like they’d been sleeping outside maybe? The clothes appeared clean but they had not seen a shower in a hot minute.

I tell them to leave or I’d open the door, let June out. I tell them I’ll call the front office and clear this up, but for now they need to leave. And sure enough, all three men turned around and got out of my house.

Once the men left, I checked the doors and the back door was unlocked (I’d checked it the night before, no chance I’d forgotten to lock it). I called the front office the minute it was open at 8 a.m., to which they said they hadn’t dispatched any maintenance men that day and asked me for a description of the men.

I’m not sure if they were ever caught, but I certainly hope so. I have never been so scared in my life. I’d used my gun when hunting but never once pointed it at a person.

In that specific housing complex, at least five women were attacked in the weeks before this encounter - so I was definitely on edge.

I kept June the entire summer and would have tried to adopt her, as we definitely bonded and I knew she had my back (I felt so safe with her). But the place I was moving into, wasn’t a place she’d be happy, as it didn’t have a yard and it was really small. To this day, I’m convinced June saved me from something truly horrible.

To the “maintenance” men, may we never meet again.