The country hostage taker

Monday was quit a day at our house. It started out as any other day. I got the kids up and ready and sent Grace off to school. Then after we made the beds Olivia and Noah snuggled up on the couch with me to read a few books. When they had tired of that they ran off to play in our back room. I sat down to check my email and noticed that the heat index for the day was only in the upper 80's. This was a great treat since lately it has been in the 100's and kept us from playing outside most of the summer. So I quickly put shoes on everyone and we went out to play on the front porch. I was so nice. I mean there was a soft breeze and Olivia and Noah were chasing the cat around the porch just having a great time. What could be better.

Then it happened.

The cat jumped off the porch to investigate a small sound. Not thinking much about this I turned my attention to the kids who were now playing with their chairs. But something was off. It is very unusual for Kit (our cat) to leave when the kids are outside. Then I heard an strange noise in the bushes right next to me. I leaned over the railing to see what the cat was doing. He was in strike mode. Uh oh, I thought, he is about to get some poor squirrel or something. That's when I saw what Kit had cornered in our bushes. It was a raccoon! Thinking of all the horror stories I have heard about raccoons and rabies I jumped out of the swing and told Olivia and Noah to run inside. They just looked at me like I was crazy. I mean from their point of view we hadn't been out long at all. So they don't move. At this point the raccoon jumps onto the porch with us. I fling open the door and yell ," Run inside!" This only made made both kids scream. Finally Olivia dashes in the door, but Noah is frozen with fear and won't budge. I tell him a second time to come in quick. But its too late! The raccoon runs in the house and over to Olivia. I'm thinking at this point how am I going to get this thing out of the house. It goes right up to her a starts sniffing her leg. Before I can get to her she goes hysterical and lets out a banshee of a scream that sends our furry visitor right out the door. Whew, at least it isn't in the house.... but wait... now Mr. Raccoon runs straight for Noah. Noah starts jumping up and down crying. I run to snatch him up before he scares the poor thing so bad that it attacks him. After I pick him up I dashed inside and slammed the door.

You would think that that would be the end of it, but no. The raccoon refuses to leave and parks itself on my door mat. We were being held hostage by a small raccoon. Kit tries to come to our rescue ,but it was to no avail. He gave our cat such a wallop that Kit went running off into the field beside our house not to be seen or heard from for a while. I'm not sure when Mr. raccoon decided to leave, but by three o'clock that afternoon it was no longer there.

Thank goodness we were all OK...even our cat. But isn't that how life is? We get held captive and become frozen with fear by the small things in life. We are all held hostage by small things in our life... things that just don't wont to leave or things that we are unsure of... is it dangerous or harmless? We don't know, but it sure does send us screaming and running to a safe place. Thankfully were serve a God who is better than animal control. He can run those things off and free us from our captivity... if we only call on him and ask for help.