Good Lord. Talk about coming home to a disaster. I thought someone had robbed us and ransacked the house.

Every pillow and blanket in the living room was on the floor, the couch cushions were askew. All the books from the lower shelf were dumped on the floor and a plant was knocked over. Over in the corner, the stained glass terrarium was broken on the carpet.(Unfortunately, it was filled with glitter snow at the time…try and get that out of a carpet.) Even the kitchen table has been pretty much swept clear.

My hand to my throat , I gasped “Who could have done this? I have no enemies?” (well I do, but try to stick with me)
Just them a squirrel (not one of the bathroom squirrels, I swear) bounded past me and ricocheted off the fridge with a bobcat and Labrador retriever in hot pursuit.

Ah. I get it now. I netted the squirrel and dumped him out the back door. The cat and dog followed.

I started cleaning up, when it dawned on me (give me a break, I’m slower in my old age) The back door had been open when I went to throw the squirrel out. That probably explains why the squirrel was INSIDE in the first place. I kept cleaning up.

The plant was pretty much trashed and since it is one that Roomba, the tortoise likes to nibble, I went to dump it in her dish.

No Roomba. NO ROOMBA? I franticly looked in all his favorite hiding places. Still No Roomba. Then I remembered the open door. It was sunny, Roomba tries to get out in the back yard when it’s sunny. Roomba is from Africa. There just aren’t enough brain cells in that little turtle head to realize that we are not in Africa and it’s WINTER.

I found shoes and headed outside. It really isn’t all that hard to follow a turtle in the snow. He was about 100 feet out in the back yard. My heart sank. I had no idea how long he had been out in the snow. He could be FROZEN.

He wasn’t. In fact he was rather pissed off that I was picking him up and putting him inside. Luckily he hadn’t been out long and only his feet and bottom shell were cold. I brought him in and put him on his recharging pad (A heating mat used for seedlings) He showed his displeasure by immediately peeing on my socks.

Sigh*

All in all I was lucky. The squirrel is obviously fine and sitting in the tree shouting profanities at the dog. The cat has found other , more entertaining things to be occupied with (I don’t even want to know what) I only lost a plant and a terrarium. In a few years all the glitter will be out of the carpet and I got a chance to dust my books.

I will have words though with the person who didn’t shut the door. I think I’ll sprinkle some glitter on their rug. That will fix them.