The Cozy Mystery List Blog

I know that I have been remiss in writing… BUT >>>

Sprite (our soon-to-be-sixteen year old “puppy”) has been having a bad patch of health the last few weeks. (I am pretty sure it’s 16 she’s going on, this whole change of the century makes me have to revert to my elementary school math to calculate everyone’s age!)

Actually, Sprite has been having problems for over a month. I think I have mentioned before that her metabolism forms crystals in her bladder, which of course means a lot of trips to the veterinarian, which means special diets and care.

And, as she gets older, she becomes more and more stubborn and obstinate. (I have to admit that is happening to me, also!) It seems like I am the only one in the family who Sprite wants to spend time with >>> when she’s awake! Poor little Sprite!

Unfortunately for me, when I wake up in the middle of the night, I am no longer “allowed” to use my flashlight to read. You would think that it would be my husband not wanting the light on… Nope, the light doesn’t bother him, however, not so Sprite. Her bouts with these crystals have even cut down on the reading I can do! If she happens to open one of her eyes in the middle of the night and see that the flashlight is on, she wakes up and wants to go outside… As much as I enjoy my Cozy Mystery reading, I just don’t like the hassle of carrying her down the stairs, having to go outside and watch as she sniffs around the yard trying to find out where the squirrels have been, carrying her back upstairs, ETC.

But, as my daughter keeps saying: “She’s worth it!” She has been a loved and valued member of our family for the past sixteen years -or is it 17?!?

Very Odd!! That’s just how I would describe what happened to us on Saturday morning.

I should preface this entry by telling you about an entry I wrote a while back. I called the entry “I thought I Had Seen Everything“… and I did think that! Yes, that’s right… a squirrel came down our fireplace!

You know what they say about lightening not striking the same place twice… Well, I would have thought that could be applied to squirrels also!

At 4:00 AM-ish on Saturday morning, I heard something in our attic. (Actually, I was hoping that it was our rooftop.) As usual, I was the person who went out and inspected for the cause of the noise… while my husband continued to sleep. After checking and checking, and then finally going back to bed, we realized that the noise was a squirrel in our attic, trying desperately to get out. Luckily, he did get out!

Unfortunately for us, we discovered that one of the ways the squirrel tried to get out of the attic was by climbing up the air conditioner’s drip pipe… which he managed to break apart. And, of course, as all things usually go >>> there is no possible way to access the part of the pipe that the little squirrel tried so valiantly to climb while making his escape.

Long story – short— We are going to have to have some repairs done in the attic so that the air conditioner’s drip pan can be attached to a new mode of drip pipe.

I’m starting to rethink having a bird/squirrel bath in our back yard. And also all of the evergreen oak trees we planted when we moved in 17 years ago… Between all of the acorns and the water, our yard has become a very popular squirrel hang-out!