A "WILD" and "HAIRY" Night last night

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UNCLE!!!!! Life has been wild enough! I thought Monday was a bad enough day but Wednesday didn't help. I haven't been sleeping well. I get to sleep between 2 and 3 a.m. and get up between 5 and 7 a.m. If I'm really lucky I sleep, but usually I fall asleep at 3 a.m. and get off the couch at 7 a.m. when things warm up. So that means 2 hours sleep. Last night was even less sleep...TERROR KNOCKING. I live close to Paso Robles where one man was murdered yesterday morning and a Police Officer was shot in the face and is in serious condition. The shooter is missing...still. I found out about that around 10 a.m. (I'm on over load from the horrific news so I'm not listening to the local news, I found this out from my doctor's office.) I didn't think about it until I was ready to collapse on the couch. I usually sleep with my doors unlocked...not last night, they got locked. Around 1:30 a.m. I heard a bang, bang, bang, bang at the back door. My heart leapt into my throat, pounding like crazy. I looked for a weapon, all I could find was a feather duster. Great weapon against a man with a gun! I slowly turned on the light and the banging continued. A normal idiot would have left. I raised the blinds, no matter how quietly you try to raise the blamed things they make a racket, again any normal idiot would have ran like a maniac Olympian trying to win the 100 yard dash. No movement. Bang, BANG, BANG!!! I looked down through the window. Heart still pounding like a base drum. The box was moving like a demon possessed. I hadn't lived alone for nearly 3 years...and when I lived alone I always had a dog to protect me...BANG,BANG, BANG, BANG! Then I saw something move just outside the box. The box measured about 5 inches tall by about 24 inches square. I wasn't too sure but didn't it kind of look like... like a...nah it couldn't be. They're not "THAT STUPID". It twitched again. Yep, they're that stupid, and Petey had just come down to see the fun. One of the neighborhood raccoons had tried to crawl into the box to see what was inside. He was stuck!!! Every time he tried to back out the box backed up with him. When it he tried to go forward to turn around it would knock on the door. I finally took pity on the poor guy (otherwise he would have had the whole neighborhood up) and raced in and put on some sandals and went outside to help the guy. I stood on the end of the box to see if he could back out. No such luck, he was too FAT! I wasn't too anxious to cut him out since I didn't know exactly where he was positioned in the box. So since the box was large enough, I picked up the sealed end and tipped it up. Petey saw what I was doing and got his fanny out of the way. I stood there for a couple of minutes waiting for him to slide out, but he was just too....well [i]FAT. I was getting cold being the rescue squad in my night tee shirt, so I started shaking the box. I heard some sliding; the raccoon was starting to come out of the box! Finally with a bit of a pop and a big PLOP Mr. Raccoon landed on the back porch. He sat there for a few minutes wide eyed with all his fur standing on end from the friction of coming out of a box backwards, and the Styrofoam packing peanut pieces stuck in his fur making him look like a black and grey Christmas tree. I couldn't help it, I stood there and laughed at the poor critter! While he was collecting his thoughts I dashed in the house and grabbed some stale cookies that I was saving for the deer and gave some to him (yep he was waiting for a treat to help him recover from his horrible experience). Someone else in the area had been hand feeding him because he was used to being handed his treats. (It also explains his waiting and also his waistline) When I gave him the last cookie he ambled off to see what someone else had managed to leave out for him to eat. As he was leaving Petey raced up, and in his Ginger Tom bravery, swatted the raccoon on the rear to encourage him to leave. Boy that cat has a over hand swing that is awesome! I closed up the box so another raccoon couldn't wake me the same way and went back to bed at 5 a.m. and slept in to 7 a.m. But at least it wasn't a maniac gunman at the door, just a hairy idiot checking out a box.