Pre-Birthday Excitement

Yesterday morning, the day of Graci's birthday party, I was busy making her cake and doing all the things I had planned to do Friday, but hadn't because of being stricken with the worst sore throat since the last time I had strep.  I spent all day Friday (after going to the doc for a shot of penicillin) laying on the couch and occasionally getting up to fix a meal for the girls and for Peter.  Thankfully I made a quick recovery because yesterday was full of more excitement than I was expecting.

Peter was off to Manhattan early for the KSU Merit Badge Conference with the Boy Scouts.  Another leader drove up from south of us and parked at our house then carpooled with Peter and the boys.  What I didn't realize was he had brought something along with him...

I knew something was hanging out under his car when the dogs wouldn't stop barking.  As we learned when camping when I was younger, a well-trained dog that refuses to stop barking usually means there is some type of critter nearby.  When I was little, it was a black bear and her cub, but thankfully this time, it was just a young raccoon.

I decided it was a good idea for Graci to have a nap before her party, so I put her down and let the barking dogs in the house.  Missy followed me around all afternoon in an attempt to be let outside.  A couple hours later I was expecting our first guests:  Peter's parents and our nephews, Liam and Duncan.  I let the dogs out knowing I would need to wake Graci soon anyway.  The raccoon was still underneath the car.  Missy's two hours of anticipation was too much for her, so she jumped the fence to check out the raccoon.  At this point, I still didn't know for sure what was underneath the car.  Piper informed me by going to the window and declaring, "I've never seen a raccoon before!"  Oh, boy, I thought.  Sure enough, Missy had jumped the fence, dragged the raccoon out from underneath the car, and was attempting the death shake on it.  I decided to interfere to keep Missy from having to take an expensive trip to the vet (after snapping a couple of pictures, of course, another lesson I learned the day of the bear encounter).  However, once the raccoon actually took a swipe at her, she soon lost interest.  

The raccoon itself appeared to be in bad shape, considering I walked up to it and all it did was stare blankly at me.  Of course now thoughts of guests arriving to a dead or even worse, almost dead raccoon in my driveway were filling my head.  Peter was still going to be gone for a couple more hours, so I called him and told him the situation.  He informed me that he has guns and I could probably figure it out (though I have never shot a gun in my life).  I told him his dad would be there any minute and I was more than happy to suggest his varmit erradiaction services.

When Peter's parents arrived the raccoon actually scooted back underneath the car.  After explaining the situation, Peter's dad was more than happy to help.  We managed to scrounge up one shot for the job.  When the boy scouts arrived later, Peter's assistant was quite surprised to find the raccoon next to his car.  Peter carried him away to the back acre and we have had quite the turkey vulture party ever since.