This Day Just Gets Weirder and Weirder

Things come in threes, right?


1.  Not really that weird... at least for where we live.

Temps below freezing this morning, yet at least one of mine finished the day in a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals.  (The sandals came after the mowing.  It's important to me that you know that.)

Yes, that is snow on the hill in the distance.

2.  Gunnar lost a tooth at lunch.

While losing teeth may be normal, Gunnar rarely loses his in a normal fashion.  He claims he's like an oak tree.  Other trees lose their leaves in the fall, in a blaze of glory.  But the oak tree clings to its leaves until new growth in the spring pushes the old leaves off.

Gunnar lets his teeth hang on FOR-EH-VAH.  Leading to episodes like this.

This time he thought there was something in his lunch that shouldn't be there.  There was.  A molar.  His molar.  Which he promptly spit out onto the plate.

Alrighty, then.


3.  We caught a raccoon.

A really weird raccoon.

We see them around the neighborhood occasionally, and the boys know to keep their distance.  For all their cute appearance, they can be pretty mean-tempered.  (The raccoons, not the boybarians ;D )

So yesterday we were getting ready for church and noticed a raccoon in the yard across the street.  He seemed to be chasing his tail, like a puppy.  A very slow puppy.  Maybe he was young and playful, but whatever, we needed to get out the door.

Well today he showed up in our driveway.  Normal raccoons will run away and go up a tree, but this one... not so much.  He just stayed in the driveway with all of us watching him twirl in slow circles.

It's hard to be the calm, rational parent I think I am with that neon warning sign flashing huge letters right before my eyes:

"RABIES! RABIES! RABIES"

While Kerry found the whole thing amusing, I grabbed a laundry basket.  The boys and I distracted the raccoon while my dad came around behind him, dropped the laundry basket over him, and held it down with his foot while Tate grabbed a cinder block to weigh it down.

Sorry, I was too distracted to get pictures.

Then things got even weirder.  You'd think Animal Control would be on this in a flash.  I mean, that's their job, right?  You'd think so, but you'd be wrong.

When they returned our call I had to spend several minutes on the phone convincing the officer to come deal with this raccoon, and that I had no intention of contacting a rehab facility. The thing about those rehab places is

they will not come and get anything 

as we've already learned, and - NEWSFLASH - I'm not willing to transport this addled little animal in my vehicle, thank-you-very-much.

They finally relented and came to get it.  And - golly gee - realized we'd made an accurate assessment that something was definitely wrong with this one.

Probably not rabies, much to my relief.  Apparently they're very susceptible to distemper.  They get sick.  And behave strangely.  And they go in circles.

Ding! Ding! Ding!  We have a winner! 

Bad news for the raccoon - it's fatal.  They'll euthanize it.

Good news for us - humans don't get it.  Not that any of us got close enough to get bit or scratched, but still... ewwww.

Gee, I can't wait to see what the rest of the week brings.