This sounds quite serious. There is a lot of joking going on in this thread but this is a potentially life threatening situation and not funny.

I would agree with you that a firearm is not the best option. You are more likely to be killed with your own firearm than you killing an attacker.

Some alternate suggestions:
- Can you not have someone come stay with you for a period ?Friend, family member.

- Possibly rent out a room to someone that is referred to you by your church?

- Figure out a number of escape routes out of your house and practice getting out. If something happens you may panic and freeze, so you need an "auto-pilot" drill that you have hard-wired into your mind.

- Speak to your immediate neighbors and tell them what happened. Even if you dont know them it will give you an excuse to just make contact in case you need to bang on their door in an emergency.

- If you can afford it get a panic button service from a reputable private security firm.

- The dog can definitely add an early warning option but if you are not used to having one around it will have an impact on your lifestyle. You also need to very careful on selection. You need a "ready made" dog i.e mature, alert, reasonably trained etc.

Not much help but anyhow I hope you will be ok and ideally get some assistance that can alleviate the fear that you are carrying. Take care and let us know how you are doing.