Well, the first "surprise on the deck" was a large kitty some time ago; now...
7am - feeding Pinot this morning - she has her domain in the lower level. There is a sliding glass door in the basement that faces the woods. I'm "plating her food", she talks, I talk back to her, this is the routine. All of a sudden she has gone stock still and silent. I looked at the slider; there is a REALLY BIG mostly black dog at the door. Pinot bolted all the way up to our room. I'm about to leave for work, but can't leave the dog, Coop wasn't going to work, so I woke him and told him we had a visitor who, at that point, had decided our deck was home. Coop came down, checked the collar, only a rabies tag. He called the emergency hospital listed; they tracked the tag, called the owner. The owner was vacationing in California, was awakened at 4am their time with "someone has found your dog". Come to find out the dog had been out on a walk with the owner's prospective mother in law and broke loose while chasing deer. They had been looking for an hour and a half for him (Summit was the dog's name we later learned). The owner didn't even know Summit was missing yet.
I went to work, after getting the pup water and cat treats (sorry, we have no dog food). Summit was taken safely back. Pinot didn't recover for a few hours. She would not come down and eat until she was sure that big bear was not within sight. My brother is visiting, and he said she really skulked around the top of the basement steps until she determined it was her house again.
She has such drama in her life. I don't know how she stands it!