From here forward known as "The Squirrel Incident of '08"

Much to Mom's dismay, because she likes to be the one to tell all the great stories, I called Sunday and talked to Dad about their interesting Friday night.

They came home from a dinner date, expecting our 20-pound cat Cisco to be occupying his normal spot on the carpet, ready for a belly rub. And he was there, waiting for them to walk in the door like he always does but as they walked in, another uninvited guest darted by. It was a squirrel! Mom freaked out, Dad started to chase it down and they both frantically tried to shoo it out open doors. Then it went downstairs and after shutting all the bedroom and bathroom doors, they'd lost it. They both figured it probably found its way outside somehow, put the cat in his "room" (he sleeps in the laundry room at night), and went to bed.

The next morning, Mom got up to let the cat out and feed him and the squirrel rushed by once again. She starts yelling, and Dad, who was still sleeping, gets up to see what's going on. Apparently Cisco and the squirrel were in close quarters the whole night. They finally got the rodent outside after chasing it around the house again but the bigger question was how did it get in the house in the first place?

Apparently it had climbed down the chimney of a no-longer-there woodstove in the basement, chewed its way through the covering and plopped down in the house like some sort of Mission Impossible secret squirrel. Along with the squirrel fell an old bird nest with some "crusty," as Dad described them, dead baby birds and a 20-year-old crumpled newspaper.

Squirrel poop, dead baby birds and frazzled nerves abounded. I only wish I would have been there to witness it all.