Midnight Visitor

Last night we had a midnight visitor...

"Oh My!!! What did you do?"

Why I grabbed my camera, of course! :)

"Good answer! But....then what?"

It was about midnight when, over the hum of the air conditioner, and through the closed door, I started hearing noises downstairs. They didn't sound like noises The Naughties would make, and James was snoring, so I got up and peered downstairs into the darkness. I heard something shuffling around down there, so I put on my Big Girl Pants and sneaked down the stairs.

I could tell by the noises that something was moving about in Mom's room. (I thought about the book where an alligator hides under the kid's bed...) I flipped on the kitchen lights, but in order to turn on the light in Mom's room, I had to go in and that wasn't happening without backup, so I went upstairs to find help. I had only one choice of helpers and he was still snoring. Lucky for me he is not a terribly sound sleeper.

Slightly groggy from being stirred from his sleep, my brave assistant crept into the dark, and now scary, room and turned on the light while I watched from the shadows. My brother's old double barrel shotgun, propped in the corner, fell over making a terrible clatter on the floor. Neither the intruder nor my helper were shaken, and no crazed animal bolted for the door.. "It's a raccoon," James said and he picked up my sign that says, "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord" He held it like a weapon/shield and told the furry, masked animal to get down. That is when I went for my camera.

Our minds were spinning. We have trapped tiny rodents, caught birds in our hands, and knocked bats out of the air, but this guy was a little too big (and possibly vicious) for those actions. We decided to open the door and see if he would comply and leave of his own accord. Mom's room has two doors. We opened the door from Mom's room to the computer room, and then one from the computer room to the front steps. Then I closed the one from the computer room to the living room. James stepped out of Mom's room through the other door and I peeked through the crack to see what would transpire.

"Yikes! Then what?"

And then, after looking around a bit, the masked intruder very quietly got down from the buffet, waddled through the door to the computer room, out the front door, and back into the darkness.

My rescuer and I went into the kitchen to find the masked bandit had knocked a few things over; a container full of kitchen tools, a teapot full of Jade plant (into the sink)... He had licked clean the spatula and knife from the peach pie and dropped the knife on the floor. (The noises I'd heard from upstairs.)

Good thing I'd covered the pie with a giant Tupperware bowl or he'd have likely had a feast and been back tonight for seconds. 

And then we went back upstairs and tried to go to sleep. Ha ha!

"How did he get in?"

The only way would have been the cat door.

"Yikes! Good thing you had your "helper"...I would not have liked to go through that alone" :-/

I went to bed wondering how I could have done it alone, and decided probably just the same way, except perhaps without pictures and with much more fear and excitement.

"wow....that is nuts!!"

"You are such a great story teller! You should write children's books! I'm sure I'm not the first one to suggest that." :-)