Unwelcome Guest

We had a very unwelcome house guest yesterday. My oldest daughter was in the office and heard the dog barking terribly. She also heard what sounded like a bird chirping. She thought that Hollie(dog) had gotten a bird and was trying to kill it. When she went to the piano room and looked under the couch it was NOT A BIRD!

She screams at me. I am outside moving sprinklers. "Mom there is a creature in our house!" I come in the house and she is in the piano room on top of the couch. I'm asking what it is. She is screaming. "I don't know what it is but it is big".The Brave girl goes and gets a broom.

I get down on the floor trying to look under the couch to see what it is. It is something big with beady little eyes looking back at me. I become hysterical. #1 starts to try and get it to come out from under. I tell her to wait, let me make a barricade so that it doesn't go into the rest of the house. I am in the hall when she finally gets it to move. IT COMES STRAIGHT AT ME! I run in the bathroom and close the door. It goes in a bedroom, we are all screaming. The dog chases it out of the bedroom back under the couch.

Poor little boy#4 has gone in my bedroom and closed the door, terrified. We start again. My 11 year old boy#2 has gotten a large kitchen knife! I tell him he isn't killing this thing with a knife. "what about the .22 shotgun? "You are not shooting this thing inside my house!" #1 starts trying to get it to come out again and go out the open door that it came in.#2 has a big box that he is going to try to trap it in. I am in the hall-still screaming. She gets it out and it heads up the wall and over our chair barricade.

The dog is now chasing this thing around my house. It goes in the pantry and then finally it sees the open back door. It runs down the stairs and hides under the stairs. It is barking/chirping---loudly! It runs down the basement stairs(thank heaven that door was closed) and behind some boxes. At this point I go and get the camera. It finally runs up the stairs out into the grass and into my shrubs and across our yard under the neighbors porch and then finally out into the trees.

Little boy #4 has come out of my bedroom with a large rock(it is jade--it is a family sickness) to kill it. We had so much adrenaline going that our heads hurt! Little boy was being so brave. He stood there and asked if we could call Poppa(grandpa). I told him he wasn't home. His little lip was just quivering. I asked him if he was scared and he just broke down bawling. I had to hold him for awhile and tell him how brave he was.

Here is Chuck. He might think twice about walking into strange houses. Perhaps we will try and keep our doors closed so that a nice little rock chuck won't find its way in ever again!

The end!