A night in Richmond

Last night was a rough one. Woke at 12:30 to the sounds of cats fighting in our backyard. It wasn't stopping, so I opened up the back door and saw two black cats having a standoff on our fence. One cat is Sparky, who lives next door, but I had not seen another black cat in our yard before. We are often visited by a large orange cat and a small Siamese cat, but not this guy. My pleas to the cats to stop were ignored, so finally as I walked out to them in the yard they scattered. Then, at 3:08 (yes, I know the exact time because its one of those instances where you wake up and look immediately to the clock) I heard 9 shots. Yes, gunfire. Richmond right now is having a major turf war. Most of the time I don't dwell on it too much, because it usually happens to "them" over on "that side" of Richmond. But in the last week, it has been all over town. First 2 shootings, then more in retaliation and so on. On our neighborhood internet group it says that the shots were aimed at someone's front door, and were 2 blocks over and 4 blocks down from us. Richmond has brought out the SWAT teams to deal with the situation, but violence seems to be contagious and is spreading to all parts of the city. What a feeling to lay afraid in your bed. We've heard gunfire before, but never that close. I ache for the parents in the world who fear for their children's safety all the time- including those here in Richmond.