Two squirrels, four ducks and an opossum. Oh, my! I enjoy almost all of God’s creation, although I do give spiders and snakes a wide berth. Since mid-February, when Grandpa Duck appeared, I have been handing out corn and birdfeed when he quacks for my attention at the kitchen window. He is here mainly for the evening feeding, as one of the squirrels, who eats early, drops a lot of corn to the ground for him.

Grandpa Duck obviously shared his food source with his friends, and so recently we have had two juvenile males along with one female coming by as well. For the first time ever all four ducks were here together, and they seemed to get along well enough. Of course, fellowship and food is usually a treat for me, too!

On the squirrel side I am assuming that there are babies in the nest in the magnolia tree, and what a grand nest it is. The three nests in the maple tree have been dismantled and combined into one large nest in the magnolia. As we watched over the late winter the squirrels gathered moss and thatch from the lawn to make their home comfortable.

Unfortunately they caused my husband, Neil, some extra work by also taking the soft outer insulation covering our air conditioning cooling pipes to fluff their nest. He had to replace the insulation and encase the pipes in downspouts to keep them safe for the future. Daily I watch as the two squirrels chase each other around the yard. I believe they are brothers, but truthfully I really cannot tell one squirrel from another, so they could be sisters.

The opossum is a critter I do not mind sharing my yard with but one I do not want in my house. When we arrived home from our short trip to Albany, New York, last month we saw that the door to the crawlspace was open and lying on the ground. It is a small door held in place only by a brick leaning against it. It would not take a great effort to open if you were an opossum seeking a warm, dry place to live. We didn’t think much about it at the time and just shut the door again, but we now believe that is how the opossum must have entered the house.

We didn’t notice anything for the first few weeks, but then in our upstairs office we heard scratching in the wall – not a pleasant sound. I banged on the wall and the noise ceased momentarily. I asked God, my Father, if He would tell His critter to leave the house. This is not a frivolous prayer because I know that God loves me and I know this critter was God’s own special creation, so I pleaded my heart to Him to separate us by more than walls.

Then this last week I heard movement in the attic stairwell. The attic is also only a crawlspace, but the access stairwell is where we store suitcases, Christmas decorations, etc. As the noise increased so did my irritation, to the point that I began banging on the door and telling the critter to leave – I could hear him inside hissing his response to me. I hoped I had won the matchup and God would show him the way out.

That night again I prayed that the critter had departed – we had not heard another noise since I told him to leave. The next day Neil and I opened the attic door ready with a broom, a bucket and a contractor’s bag to nab the critter and set him free if he was there. I was dreading dealing with the scat and urine that I feared would be covering our stored goods.

God is so very gracious! We did not find the opossum, the entire attic (Neil did the inspection, of course) was critter-free, and there was not one drop of scat or urine anywhere on the stowed items. I am feeling extremely blessed.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus,” so said the Apostle Paul to the Philippians.

Paul was not speaking about opossum problems, but he is definitely speaking to me about the way Neil and I are to live our everyday lives – rejoicing in the Lord, giving thanksgiving and prayers, being at peace throughout the troubles and the blessings.