Sunburns and Raccoons

In continuing with my last post, I followed that wonderful day with two more. On Saturday, the girls and I took our time getting ready for the morning and then drove downtown near my work. I showed them a place where they could study while I worked for 5 hours and afterwards we would meet up and hang out some more!

Upon arriving at work (my second to last day, it was!), one of my cashiers began telling me about a baby raccoon they had found the day before while I'd been off. It was so young it didn't even have its eyes open and one of the girls (who has experience raising kittens) had taken him home. In the middle of her story, a woman came rushing up to me and said "Um, there's a tiny baby raccoon by my car!"

Dreading the thought of seeing a dead animal I followed her to the car. There in the parking spot next to hers lay a tiny baby raccoon. Afraid to touch it in case he was dead, I grabbed a nearby stick and gently prodded him. There was no response and the woman was near tears, "I saw him take a breath before I came and got you! Maybe it was his last!"

A little disappointed and sad, I almost turned away when he moved. The "mothering" instinct kicked in and I scooped that baby up and headed inside. He was SO cold. Unhealthily cold. I remembered that in the Disney movie, 101 Dalmations, when the one puppy was thought dead the man rubbed him. And so it began. I spent part of my 5 hours checking on that baby and rubbing him down to keep him alive. The ladies inside ran hot water through the coffee pot and filled up one of their plastic ribbon baggies to make a hot water bottle for the tiny raccoon. The cashier who happened to have the brother raccoon from the night before, took him home during her lunch break and tried to get some kitten formula into him, but he didn't eat much.

She called me about it and was worried that his very actively exploring brother would scratch him up, so she was allowed to bring him back to the store where we could monitor him. It was an intense day inbetween the normal Saturday routine and the baby raccoon, I feared it would never end. Thankfully, the managers allowed the girl to leave work early so she could take the baby home and feed him and my friends arrived to pick me up!

We toured the Galleria, my Dad grilled burgers for all of us, and we watched a second musical.

Today was delightful! We decided to do our morning devotions on the beach! Therefore, we packed up our Bibles, notebooks, several towels and blankets (not that we were going to swim...), a few types of sunscreen and aloe vera lotions (good thing too!), and some beach equipment (i.e. an umbrella, shovels, a bucket, a water ball, and a kritter keeper (you never know when you might need to bring something home...;) )

It was gorgeous at Galveston! Except that it was a bit too windy. They have recently spread the beach with newly imported fine, white sand...which the wind blows everywhere! (My hair looked white and grey by the end of the day...) Unable to read in such a wind, we frollicked in the sand and skipped in the small waves! Melissa chased some seagulls and Jessie and I flopped down on the soft sand...and were thankful for the sunglasses keeping most of the sand out of our eyes. We all talked, built drip sand castles (a remarkable technique I learned in California), and visited my favorite souvenier shop (and the one my computer is named after) Murdoch's. For lunch, we dined at Joe's Crab Shack and then we headed towards home with a ten minute detour to gape at the two giant cruise ships docked nearby!

Jessie apparently does not burn much, I burn a little, and poor Melissa fries faster than popcorn pops in a microwave! As I sit here with cherry red shoulders and a pink nose, I am grateful that I do not have Melissa's lovely red legs! For all of that planning, we forgot to put on the sunscreen and left it in the car during our rush to get to the beach!

Oh well, it was the most perfect miniature vacation week!