Under a Southern Moon

Book excerpt: Scooter and his family fled the blazing forest fire to the safe hide-away of a Kudzu-covered fence between the forest and the old plantation house known as Stone Gable. Scooter was a scholarly raccoon but what he couldnt know, while checking out the place that was to become their new home, was that the attic of Stone Gable was exactly his wheelhouse. Purely by dumb-luck he happened upon the biggest discovery of his life, and the implications for Stone Gable were so profound he wondered if he could ever figure out why humans did what they did. Oddly enough, they could almost reach-out and touch their land, their old home, their beloved tree, but even if they stretched and strained they would never touch it again. Change happened, and they were trying to adjust. But after all that, after all those months in which Stone Gable had happily become their home, there was that bleakest of days, the worst day of Scooters life. His wife and three children were hiding as he taught them to do when danger loomed. Danger was looming now, and it came in the form of Matthew, the exterminator. Scooter bloodied his paws and fingers scratching at doors and windows, used his body as a battering-ram trying to gain access, but to no avail. His only optionface the enemy! Face Miss Anne head on and plead for her mercy. As he ran toward her he was sure she would try to beat him to death with the nearest thing she could grab, and with his wild demeanor and bloodied body he could understand that. How did my life come to this, he wondered? Ages: 9, 10, 11, 12