Intruder!

Many nights we have to jump out of bed to attend to an emergency with Maggie. We used to rely on the nurse’s loud voice to wake us. However, our room is upstairs in the front of the house and Maggie’s is downstairs in the back. Ifthe door was closed to Maggie’s room we couldn’t always hear the nurse yelling. To remedy that, we put in an extension phone on the fax line and put it in Maggie’s room; now if the nurse needs me in the middle of the night, she calls the house number and it rings right next to our bed.

At 4AM, I heard screaming. At first, I thought someone was being attacked outside the house. I sat bolt upright and then realized it was coming from INSIDE the house. My brain quickly went down the possibilities. Maggie? No! She cannot scream! What is it? The nurse? No. Steve and I looked at each other and I said. “It’s the DOG!”

The screaming continued. We ran downstairs and headed toward the basement. Graciously, I allowed Steve to go first. I was afraid of what I would see. Was he impaled on something? I am good at Maggie emergencies. Not so good at any others.

Steve started down the basement steps and saw Brisco trying to get up the stairs. A raccoon was on his back attacking him. Both animals were screaming. It was freaky. Apparently the raccoon decided that giant container of dog food was a perfect 4 AM snack. Brisco felt otherwise.

Please remember, we live in the middle of San Francisco in a row house. There are many perils and pitfalls to city living. Wildlife is not generally among those. I just hope that raccoon isn't in a gang who will come back en masse to retaliate.

Steve got the raccoon out the back door and I tended to Brisco’s torn ear. A trip to the vet is in order once the sun comes up. His ear is ok, just a deep scratch. I am trying to remember if his shots are perfectly up to date. We are going to avoid any diseases this city critter may be carrying.

Of course, the vet will have to wait until the plumber comes to check out our sewer problem. Now this is the type of peril I am used to. We discovered water backing up in the sink next to the washing machine. We cannot use the water in the house without exacerbating that problem. Once the raccoon was gone, Steve took the opportunity to bail out the sink before it overflowed again.

The plumber is coming first thing in the morning. Or, what I thought was first thing. Little did I know we would have our own Wild Kingdom show.

Maggie? Fine. Once the screaming stopped, she thought it was hilarious that Dad and I were running around downstairs in the middle of the night. Bonus! She is just sorry she will miss the plumber.