Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?


Oldest daughter came over Monday. She was sick and I guess no matter how old they get, there's something about being at mom's house that makes things a little better. So she's laying on the couch sound asleep and I'm typing - fixated on the computer, putting the final touches on my thesis proposal.

After a little while I hear rummaging around in the kitchen and assume that her appetite must be back. This goes on for sometime when I hear her voice (from the couch) asking "Is that you, Mom?"

"Noooo...you mean it isn't you, Rachel?"

"Ummm....no."

I jump up and run to the kitchen just in time to see a squirrel nose diving at my sliding glass doors - trying to get - OUT! Of course we both do the obligatory girl scream and hop on the couch. (As if that will afford us any protection lest the little rodent decides to attack us.) I grab my cellphone and call hubby.

"There's a SQUIRREL in the HOUSE!"
"What?"
"A SQUIRREL! In the HOUSE!"
"Let him out."

Gheesh. Men are so daft sometimes. Like I'm going to walk over to this critter and just open the door and say "Here...let me get that for you." He runs into the living room and disappears. I grab a large stick and wait. Not that I plan on whacking the thing. Just for protection. You know...in case he attacks. I saw the movie "Christmas Vacation"...

Hubby tells me to phone him back when the squirrel is outside. So daughter and I sneak over to the door and slide it open about 8 inches. Mind you it's 27 degrees outside. Then we sit on the couch so that we can see into the kitchen and wait. With the stick. Just in case.

After about a half an hour he runs toward the door. He pauses, twitches his tail a bit and then runs out. We slam the door behind him.

Never a dull moment over here! The only way I can figure that he got in was the evening before when I was lighting a fire in the wood stove and the draft backed up and started letting smoke into the house. I opened the door for about 10 minutes to clear the smoke out. Yes, we have a screen door on the slider, but it was on the other side and I figured it's winter....there's no bugs or anything. Wasn't thinking squirrels!

That means the night before when all the kids were here for dinner....so was the squirrel. And all night while we were sleeping unaware upstairs - he was in here. Ewww!

Anyway - that was my drama for the week.

Thirty-one days till Spring!

8 comments:

grammy said...

Hey, look on the bright side. Could have been a bear....that happens not far from where I live. It is kind of strange thinking of it being in the house all night. What if it had jumped on the bed (o:

new*me said...

How much fun was THAT?!

Manuela said...

Last summer I was sitting in the family room with my mother when we heard a rustling coming from the fireplace.

I opened the door and out flew a sparrow! Fortunately, my patio door wasn't far--I opened it right away and a minute later the birdie was gone but, what a fright!

JC said...

Lora, Thanks for the laugh. My day has been way to intense. Your conversation with hubby was priceless. "Call him when the critter is out of the house" LOL WHY!!! LOL

Hanlie said...

I love squirrels! Never a dull moment!

TitanThirteen said...

Aawwwwww the poor little thing! All he wanted was a bit of food and refuge from winter, you bullies! Get off the computer right now and put a bit of bread outside the door for him :o)

dkaz said...

You were lucky! Last April, my son opened the back door to put out the trash and a squirrel ran in the house. Two days of misery (have-a-heart trap setting, keeping the cats locked up, leaving the back door open and hoping that the squirrel's relatives didn't come in too) later, we finally were able to get a critter control person to come to the house and catch the little beast, relieving me of $200 in the process.

Doc Manette said...

I was thinking the same thing as grammy - thank goodness it wasn't a bear!

My son got a small shot gun for Christmas for "squirrel hunting" with my dad. My dad grew up in Louisiana where squirrel gumbo was a "treat". Eeeew.

I told my son, we will never be so poor that we will have to eat squirrel and if we are - we still will not eat squirrel.