Picture This...

...It's a calm Wednesday morning and Josh has just left for work. I said goodbye to him and Emma has decided for the first time in weeks that she's going to sleep a little bit later. I'm closing my eyes in hopes that I'll fall asleep for a few minutes before Emma awakes. Sounds nice, right?

Now enter our cat, Nala...with her meow that makes you KNOW that there is something wrong. She has a chipmunk in her mouth and she waits until I sit up in bed and look at her to drop it. The chipmunk is possibly the largest chipmunk I have ever seen (and sadly I've seen LOTS). The chipmunk runs under the television stand and Nala takes her stance in front of it. I try to see how I could catch it. First I run through the normal routing. And yes, I think it's a bad sign that we have a normal routine. I close the door to our closet and our bathroom so that I at least know which room it is in. Then I close the door to our bedroom and put a towel in the bottom door crack so that it can't get out. I can get the birds, moles, lizards or whatever else she hunts outside but chipmunks are just so hard to get. They are fast and they can wait you out. She has never brought a chipmunk in when I'm home by myself. Ugh. I had to break down and call Josh. I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't have a chipmunk running around with Emma on the floor, now could I? He had just gotten to work and he had to come back home...good thing we only live 10 minutes from his work! In the meantime, Emma has awoken due to the incessant meows and me running around looking for towels, closing doors, and calling Josh.

I left Nala in the bedroom so that she could keep an eye on it. That way as soon as you go in, you know where it is because she has her stance and she is staring at whatever creature it might be that day. Josh went in with his flashlight and there were crashes and clanks and meows coming from behind the closed door. After about 10 minutes, he emerged and took the chipmunk outside. There was no way I would have ever caught it, so it was the right decision to call him. Thanks Josh for coming to save me and Emma this morning!

Now if Josh would just make sure the back door is closed when he leaves in the morning, we won't have to go through this again.