A dog or two would be great, but I cannot afford the investment of time that dogs deserve and require, much less their added expense. Plus I would need training that I also cannot afford.

Frankly I think the dogs-for-survival topic deserves its own thread.

Without going into detail, note that in my scenario nobody actually got through into my home. Like the flex zones of a car body, there are inexpensive measures you can use to upgrade your door and window areas to slow down penetration. This gives you increased response time.