Expectant Prayers ®

A friend of ours gave us some authentic Mickey Mouse ears a few years ago, and we put them on Shad last night.  Celeste thought he was so cute, she took a few pictures.....

That got me thinking about mice and some related stories...

Last year, some neighbors of ours moved out and relocated to another state.  They had been in their home for some thirty plus years!  In the back yard, they had a shed which they used for storage of come household items, furniture, and lawn equipment.  Upon cleaning it out (in order to move) they discovered the shed had turned into a mouse house...a critter condo...a pest palace!  Of course, they tried to "take care" of the little creatures and rid their shed and possessions of mousy business.  Some of the mice scattered down our way and soon we had mice getting up on our screened in porch. 

If you know anything about how I feel about animals you would probably call me "Bambi Lover" because I can't stand for innocent, helpless animals to be injured.  My husband created a "trap" to catch the little critters and soon we were gathering them by the handfuls and setting them free in the woods one-by-one.  Soon we were pest free.

Now, I love Tom and Jerry, but that's not reality.  Mickey Mouse is cute, but real mice are considered rodents.   Owls eat them and so do snakes.  Mice cause damage!

A few months later rats became an issue in a city close by.  The city put out poison to control the rodents (of course they can carry disease, etc. and can quickly get out of hand).    We never saw any live rats, but two very LARGE ones ended up crawling in our yard during the night and dying.   We found them within days of each other.   Now that was icky.

As much as I love the woodland creatures, I realize that they can be harmful and dangerous pests.  I respect their place in the world, but that place is FAR from my home!  I don't want rats, mice, snakes, skunks, or anything else taking over my yard or home. 

Fast forward to late last week when I heard something scurrying in the ceiling above me in the kitchen.  Oh, no!  Were there mice in the attic?
My thoughts went to several April Fool's Days ago when we had just finished our attic.  The perfect set up for a holiday prank!  I went upstairs for several minutes and then came dashing down the ladder saying, "There's something furry up there!"   Of course, I had put a sign on a little furry stuffed animal that read "APRIL FOOLS!"
Now was the joke on me???  A dose of reality set in.  Someone was going to have to go up there.
But it wasn't going to be ME and it wasn't going to be right then.  No way.

I told Pete about the noise and he said, "It could be a rat or a raccoon.  If that's the case, we'll have to call animal control to remove it."   He sees plenty of both at night while he's out on patrol and knows that it's nothing to mess around with.

We heard the noise for several days- around the same time as the previous days.  It seemed to be IN the wall.  Each day the noise had made it around the wall a little further.  

One particular day, the scratching, gnawing, or whatever went on for several minutes.   It was maddening and my mind raced to figure out what was causing the commotion.  I took a broom and knocked on the ceiling above me.  I heard something "jump back".  "Not big enough for a raccoon", I said, "and too bouncy for a rat."

Then it dawned on me.  Several weeks ago when the weather was bad and very windy, all of the squirrel nests got knocked out of the trees.  The kids found them while they were outside playing and brought me pieces.  I then put two and two together and realized that a squirrel must have gotten in our screened in porch (through some gaps in the screen) and somehow made its way into the wall between the porch addition and the house.  Part of me felt sad because I know the poor critter needed a home since its nest was destroyed in the storm.  Poor little thing. 

But, I do not want it in my house.  It doesn't belong there.

I tapped on the ceiling again . I heard a quick scurry scat.  I opened the sliding glass door to the porch and popped my head out.  Sure enough peering down at me from the rafters was a squirrel!  Caught him red handed.

Pete went up later and checked out the attic; nothing was there.  The squirrel seemed to be confined to the wall somehow, though we don't know how in the world he gained access to the wall from the porch.  Obviously they are connected somehow.    

The good news is that since we found out where it was and WHAT it was... and the kids have been out playing more...we haven't seen it.  My guess is that it saw US and decided that making our home his home wasn't a good idea.  The bad news?  Well, my mother pointed out that it could have been a mommy trying to find a place to have its babies!   But, I think if it was still there, we would be hearing something, which we aren't.     One can only hope it has gone.

The porch will have to be fixed this spring (we were planning on glassing it in at some point) and the areas in the rafters closed up so that it doesn't happen again.  

Isn't this a perfect picture about our spiritual homes?  The enemy seeks any "hole" to gain access and then tries to move right in! 

God expects us to be good caretakers of not only our physical homes, but our spiritual ones as well.  We have to constantly watch against the attacks of the enemy and the tools he would use to gain access.  Where the devil has gained access, we need to guard more diligently because he recognizes that area as a weak point.  He'll try to get in there again and again if you're not careful. 

Many times the "tricks" the enemy uses to gain access into your home seem to be "innocent" or wrapped up in a package that seems harmless enough, but in the long run they are just tools for destruction.  They steal your joy, kill your peace, destroy your integrity, harm your finances, ruin your marriage...you name it.   Sounds like the job of rodent, doesn't it????

Don't let a "mouse" live in your house.