Unwelcome visitors

Life in the Okanagan is always wrought with challenges; forest fires, summer traffic, and of course the uninvited, unwelcome visitors. You know, the "friends" you haven't seen or heard from until they got your change of address email, then all of a sudden they think "hey, free room and board in the Okanagan - let's go!"

Fortunately the unwelcome, uninvited visitors stopped coming a few years after we moved here. Perhaps it had something to do with our requests to make their own daily plans, do their own laundry and help with the grocery bill. Our house is not an all inclusive resort with daily concierge and maid service.

For anyone who doesn't know our area, we are fortunate enough to be surrounded by fruit orchards and vineyards. However that also means that from July thru Oct, we are also subjected to a large transient population that sweeps through the valley looking for work. And because our house is somewhat isolated from our neighbors, I am usually quite security conscious especially when I am home alone or home alone with the kids. (Although, let's face it, even if my husband was home he wouldn't hear anything over the sound of the tv anyways!)

But I let my guard down when we were unloading the beach stuff from the car. I left our front door open and suddenly there was this very scary, very large, very scruffy looking man knocking on my open door. He tells me he's working in the orchard next door, and him and his friend have lost their ferret and ask if I've seen it/her.

Bizarre I know, but hey, this is the kind of stuff that happens around here. So after I tell him I haven't (not that I really would know what a ferret looks like up close anyways) I firmly close the door and lock it and go back to unpacking my cooler. Have you ever had the feeling that you should look behind you cause something's there, but you know it's not a person?? As I turned around, the ferret (who had obviously come in through our open door) ran by me and headed for the living room to hide under the chair my daughter was sitting in.

I told them all not to move, and then the ferret made a run for the safety of the couch. My son yells "It's a weasel!". My daughter screams. I head for the door to find the two guys still looking around my yard. And yell "Found it!" So they come and rescue "her" and let me and the kids pet her.

Yup, just your average day here in the Okanagan. The moral of the story is; always lock your door.