Tales From The Ark....an excerpt from the soon to be released memoir of the life and times of the Schroeder Clan

Mistletoe....This Sweet Boy Turned To A Life Of Crime (momentarily;)

There are definite certainties in life, death and taxes, as the saying goes.... and for the Schroeder Clan there's one more certainty:  Every time Craig leaves town, there's going to be some sort of crisis.

Sure enough, yesterday he headed back out to Colorado to work with clients for the week, and before noon I had a child in tears and I was having trouble deciphering what exactly the problem was.  Thankfully I had some backup this time, as Tess was home for a visit :)  As we were sitting in my office talking, Gracie came downstairs in tears, unable to speak.  All I could figure out was that it had something to do with her geriatric gerbil, Daisy.  "Did Daisy die?" I asked.   Tears flowing and a garbled "I don't know" was all I could understand.  We all ran upstairs, and as we hurried I also heard the name "Mistletoe" uttered.  Uh Oh....

Our sweet Mistletoe is one of our christmas kittens from this past year.  He has never given a second glance to any of the small critters living in this house, yet today for some unknown reason, he decided he wanted to play with Daisy, the gerbil (he may have actually been thinking "lunch" but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt here).  As Tess and I go running upstairs, we are putting pieces together that Mistletoe has done something to Daisy.  We are not quire sure what to expect and are afraid of finding her half alive on the living room floor, or (gasp!) still limp in Mistletoe's mouth.  We get upstairs and discover that Hannah had spun into action in superhero speed and gathered all our kittens (who really aren't so much kittens anymore), placing them behind a locked bathroom door.  I then see Daisy's cage turned upside down after it had been knocked off the bookshelf that it sits safely on....Daisy nowhere to be seen.  I pick up the cage, afraid to find her crushed underneath and suddenly see her scurry through the wheels of Craig's gun cart.  WHEW!!!!  She's alive!  But, she's scared and has a reputation for being a biter, so now what?  A quick planning session takes place to come up with a way to catch her without getting bitten.  It took some patience, a pair of snow gloves, a brave oldest daughter, lots of gerbil road blocks, but I'm happy to say that she is once again, safely in her cage.  She settled down after a quick snack, and spent the afternoon napping in her mushroom house.  The offending kitten spent the afternoon in time out, reciting "We do not eat our friends" 1000 times.

I would love to say that this is an abnormal day in the Schroeder home.... but I can't.  No, we don't always have an attempted murder by one of our own, but there is never any shortage of excitement and chaos around here.  These critters can create extra work and drama for sure, but they also give us lots of opportunity to LOVE and LAUGH through their antics.  Until such time as we get moved back to the farm, the pet population around our home serves as a valuable training ground for our girls.  They learn responsibility, respect, love, sacrifice, just to name a few of the values taught through caring for animals.  And, these lessons are driven in much deeper than just your normal childhood chores, as our girls understand that their pets very lives are dependent on the care they give them.  Frankly, messy bedrooms and other chores that get shuffled to the side because of something more fun, doesn't end in anyone dying.  But, forgetting to water or feed your critter does.  Learning to put yourself second and caring for someone or something elses needs first is THE MOST PRECIOUS GIFT we can ever give our girls.  After all, it's teaching them to be God's hands and feet here on earth.  It's for that very reason that we will always have a houseful of critters.... well, that and the fact that they are just fun and provide more laughter than any other show in town ever could :)