Wacky Wednesday

    If there is such a thing as “wacky Wednesday”, it happened at our house early this morning, around 12:15am.  I was awakened by the sound of my husband yelling from somewhere in the house.  First I heard, “Karen, get up and find Harley!  Shut the bedroom door!”  So I did.  I held Harley while Jay proceeded to run around the kitchen or hallway to the living room with a large pole.

    He yelled through the bedroom door that a raccoon had breached the cat door in the garage and then entered the house through the cat door in the utility room.  The raccoon then proceeded into the house where it ran around every room like a crazed fool.  It awakened Jay who had dozed off while reading in his recliner.

    The raccoon proceeded to jump on furniture and hit the cabinet holding our flat screen TV, knocking over my candy dish from Canada, a prized possession that I hand-carried in my purse from our cruise to New England and Canada last fall.  The candy dish was now in a thousand tiny pieces.  It could never be glued together.

    

     Next Jay was running from room to room, chasing the wily critter opening doors to the outside, hoping that it would run to freedom.  Alas, the raccoon wasn’t that smart.  It kept running to other rooms, and Jay would hear things falling or smashing.  Oh, no – now what?!

    Finally it was my time to come out of the bedroom and grab an old inch thick yard stick that was fairly sturdy, which I intended to use as my weapon.  The raccoon decided to dive behind the antique victrola in the dining room and smashed all the cobalt blue vases and bottles that were sitting on top of that piece of furniture.  My collection of beautiful blue ware was gone in a few seconds! 

    Jay prodded the animal who insisted it was going to climb up the back of the victrola and escape over the top.  But the raccoon was too heavy and would slide back down.  By this time, I had moved the couch to a position to block any movement of the animal into the living room, so that it’s only escape route was through the front door.  Jay had moved the dining room table and chairs in such a way as to provide a path as well.  But no!  The animal flew through the legs of one of the chairs and proceeded into the hallway to the back rooms of the house!

    We ran after the raccoon just as it managed to gets its fat body under the computer cabinet.  Jay moved the recliner and other chairs in that room to give the animal plenty of room to exit.  We also grabbed several pieces of luggage that we had not yet stored away in our closet from a recent trip and  built a wall in the hallway.  By blocking the path now from the computer room to the rest of the house, the animal could only go into the guest bathroom and out a door that led to the outside and the lawn. 

    Both of us were concerned about getting attacked or bitten since we had very large objects that prodded the raccoon or were going to use it as weapons, if necessary.  But we didn’t have to worry about that.  The raccoon was as scared as we were.  It finally hit the luggage wall, made a quick right through the guest bathroom and out the door to freedom!

    We caught our collective breaths after I slammed the door shut and just shook our heads for several minutes.  I was concerned about Jay’s breathing with the loss of most of his right lung.  He had done most of the chasing, prodding and yelling.

    I kept apologizing because it was, after all, my fault, as I was negligent in ensuring that the garage cat door was properly locked.  I thought it was, but the lever was not completely in the proper position to the left.  An animal could not leave the garage, but could get in.   I told Jay that the broken items could be replaced, and that no major damage was done.  We were not bitten, nothing was ripped, but we did spend another hour sweeping glass, vacuuming and putting the furniture back in its place.

    By 1am we were both exhausted, and wide awake, so we decided to watch a television show that we had taped.  After that show, we both were ready to sleep.  Thank goodness neither of us had any early morning commitments.

    Time and time again when I look out at night and see a raccoon in the yard, it will no longer be with a compassionate spirit.  Next time, the trap will be set and the raccoon had better watch out.  We'll be waiting.....