Protection on the Point

We are of course protected 24 hours a day by the Customs and Border Patrol here in Point Roberts.  But we are also protected by the Whatcom County Sheriff in the person of a couple of deputy sheriffs.  They used to live at the Sheriff's Station on South Beach Road.  There were two weary-looking, pre-fab kind of houses, nicely surrounded by a 6/7-foot wire fence.  Well, nicely if you like the idea of being fenced in.  With a big sign saying there is No Trespassing or No Unauthorized Entrance.  (I can't remember at the moment what the sign says, but it has a forbidding quality to it.)

It looked sort of prison-like, I'm sorry to say, since it was actually the home of two deputies and their families.  Then, about 3 or 4 years ago, the deputies and their families moved out.  The word on the street was that the houses were rodent-infested, or mold-infested, or just not nice for human habitation.  The deputies and their families then took up residence in rental properties and you would see their official cars parked at their little cottages here on the Point.  And the Sheriff's Station lay vacant.

I follow this a bit because I live near the Sheriff's Station and I used to be able to tell people how to get to my house by using it as a landmark.  But since the deputies moved out, newer residents to the Point seem less likely to know either that there is a Sheriff's Station or where it is.

Then, two or three months ago, much activity was suddenly manifest at the Sheriff's Station.  The old and infested pre-fabs disappeared over a week and then, in a bit, new pre-fabs appeared.  And much construction of additional amenities, including decks on the two houses, was undertaken.  And then a couple of weeks ago, I saw a moving van drive into the forbidden area.  And now, there are people there.

Not only people, presumably Deputy Sheriffs and their families, but dogs.  Several dogs, perhaps as many as three dogs.  Black dogs, of about the size of German Shepherds.  They could be short-haired German pointers, although I don't remember that they are ever solid black.  What they really are are barkers.  Insistent barkers.  They are committed to protecting the Deputies and the Deputies' families from any attacks from people walking by and especially from any attacks that arise from people walking by with some other dog on a  leash.  Those Deputy Dogs, they bark and bark and bark. 

Unfortunately, on a sunny, summer Saturday or Sunday, somebody walks down South Beach with a dog on a leash about every twenty minutes.  So we are treated to the sound of the Deputies and their families being provided with all this dog protection quite steadily.  All this protection AND a 6/7-foot wire fence that completely encloses the compound?  And a 24-hour CPB with cameras and radiation detection and all?  We might well ask, as a 7-year-old grandchild once wisely asked, "Why do the Sheriff's Deputies need so much protection?.