There's a lovable saying in the Military community. Military Murphy's Law: When the spouse is away for work. What can go wrong, will.
Welcome to my home. I completely forgot about this fun little part of TAD, TDY, Deployments etc. Lily's teething up a storm. Her two front teeth are about to pop on out. We've been making due, and really only at night do they seem to be an issue. Even so we've been able to soothe the pain with teething tablets, Tylenol, and frozen cantaloupe in a mesh feeder. I was actually patting myself on the back for handling her night time fussiness so well (I just love my sleep, and can be grumpy with out it). Go figure that things would get a whole lot worse before Cayce would come home. Cue the pitter patter of raccoon feet.
It's no secret we have a gang of rowdy raccoons in the neighborhood. We've (stupidly) welcomed and photographed one on our porch, and we've watched as our Lab bravely rescued our Cocker Spaniel from the clutches of one hungry trash digger.
Then started the nightly serenade of tinkling raccoon toes on our roof. It wasn't too bad. The dogs got a little miffed, but eventually even they got used to the sound. In my mind I imagined them crawling up the large tree overhanging the roof above our master bedroom, quickly sprinting across the roof to the tree overhanging the back porch, and single file climbing down that tree to search for delicacies a la Mautino. We keep our back porch closed in during the night, so we never really worried about a raccoon invasion. However, the buggers defied our human barriers (screened door) and punched on through to get to the tasty dog food and trash can kept there. Color us angered when we discovered the busted screen the next morning. So we learned our lesson. Dog food is now kept in the kitchen and trash is now really and truly raccoon proof. Since the kibble buffet and dumpster diner have been closed our raccoon encounters have greatly diminished. Until last night. I was sleeping peacefully, enjoying getting a full night of sleep without any pitiful cries of pain from Lily, and at 6:22 AM a sound awoke the dogs and me. At first I thought it was just the Ricky Raccoon gang coming in for their tour of the yard, but then I heard the sound of our INSULATION (!!) being pushed around. I just stared at the ceiling listening to the intruder scamper from one end of our bedroom to the other. We have a very large master suite and he/she was certainly getting a workout. He/she was digging, thudding, and prancing all over the attic. Of course the dogs are going nuts. I was afraid to move. Of course rational thought tells me the raccoon's not going to crash through the drywall and attack, but at 6:30 AM anything's possible. Finally the commotion ceased, and I thought the dogs and I could go back to slumberland. Cue Lily. Poor thing woke up crying. I headed into the bathroom first only to discover the toilet had been running ALL NIGHT. I jiggled the handle, took off the lid, did something to the things in there, and said screw it this is going to have to wait 'til Lily's back to sleep. Luckily that did not take long at all. She nursed for only 10 minutes and happily went back to bed. Upon returning to upstairs to the bathroom I found the toilet in proper working order. I attempted to go back to sleep, but stayed up listening to the raccoon ballet while every one in the house around me slept peacefully. I've been up since then, haven't eaten, and already put in the maintenance request. When Lily takes her afternoon nap I may just join her. Only 5 more days 'til we're in DC, and hopefully the house stays standing while our house-sitter is here. If not I may just pack it in, and call it a day.
It never fails. The best toys are the 4 legged kind. Since Cayce's been gone Choco has really taken to Lily. She gives Lily lots of kisses every day, and is trying to teach Lily to play fetch. She's super patient with Lily, and lets her grab and hold onto her fur and face. Lily thinks Choco is the bees knees and giggles and laughs at her all the time. Makes me happy :-D
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