There we were, getting ready to host our biggest party to date. We had members of our family coming from the north, south and even internationally. In fact, it would be the first time that three generations of our Dutch relatives, and both sides of our immediate family, would all be under one roof. Even Cousin Mushu flew in to be at this celebration! Then preparations all came to a screeching halt! Squirrels tried to sabotage our party, by cutting off the electricity!

While Mom and Dad were in the midsts of doing final touches of cleaning, and starting to prepare the food, everything suddenly went dark! There we stood in stunned silence. Dad had planned for everything on his spreadsheet, but not this! There wasn’t a storm. It was early on a Saturday morning, so it wasn’t a power surge due to the heat. And according to the power company, only 92 houses in our area were without power. Coincidence? This full-time Dog Ufologist / part-time party planner, says, NO! It was planned by squirrels!

Asa blamed himself for the squirrels knocking out the power for our neighborhood. After all, it was rude of us to plan a party and not invite them. Oh sure they aren’t relatives, and had no reason to be there, but according to Asa, it is the neighborly thing to do.

However, there was one flaw in the squirrels’ plot to ruin our event! They shut down the electricity at 5:30 AM. Thus our power company had plenty of time to restore it before the start of the party. Two hours later, the lights were back on, and we were well on our way to preparing for the biggest party we ever hosted! And what a party it was! No wonder those squirrels wished they were invited!