The girls finally fell asleep in the tent around midnight, but had forgotten to zipper the tent shut. They happened to be in an area of the country known for it's wildlife that comes out at night to forage for food and play. Ordinarily, this could turn into a very typical story where the racoon, or the possum just waltzes on into the tent and gets chased out. But not this night. Nope. Not on this particular night when a pack of Tasmanian Devils happened to be out looking for trouble.



Thelma was the first to open her eyes. She didn't even need to open them, because her ears told her everything she needed to know: the tent zipper was unzipped and 'something' had decided to turn their sleeping quarters into a temporary party pad. It was shortly afterwards when the commotion began, and Louise also woke up. The women were not particularly afraid of night time creatures, but this night they were both frozen stiff, for just inches away in their own tent, they could hear the ferocious snarling, spitting, and fighting between 10 to 12 of these freaks of nature. The girls didn't dare either move or try to turn on a flashlight. They didn't really want to see what was going on, and they certainly didn't want the devils to see them.



The girls had brought in the kitchen before going to bed, and zippered it up, tight. It seemed to do the job, because after about a half hour of bickering and hissing, the Devils all somehow exited the tent in a whirlwind of nasty confusion. The girls could hear the spitting and fighting getting dim in the distance until it was gone, and they went back to sleep.

In the morning, they looked around and found the foldable camping cupboard intact, but with a few porcupine quills stuck to it as a reminder to the women not to forget to feed the wild animals next time before they went to bed.