Sunday 7 October 2018

Invasion of the critters

The other night I ate half (okay, three-quarters) of a bag of chips for dinner, watched three hours of The Mindy Project in bed, and spent half an hour freaking out about the tap-tapping noises coming from the attic. It sounded like an animal walking around, but not a mouse, something bigger - a pack rat? Or a raccoon? I called Rich. 
"I think I have a raccoon in my attic," I told him without preamble. "Something is walking around up there. Something big. It sounds like the corgi, but she's right next to me, staring up at the ceiling and barking."   
"Okay," he said patiently. "What do you want me to do about it?" 
"What?" I shouted. "I can't hear you over Lily's barking!"
"WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT?" he repeated loudly.
"I want you to bring your gun and shoot him!" I cried, looking worriedly up at the ceiling. "What if he comes down here?"
 "He won't," he reassured me firmly. "Why don't you just leave him alone?"
"Well, if he can't come down, I guess he can stay," I agreed slowly. "It's kind of nice to have another house mate. I shall call him Maurice."

When I came back to Princeton last Thursday, I made three discoveries: 

1. My house mate had baked me cookies. (Thank you B!)
2. It was cold in the house. 
3. We have mice.

Attached to our kitchen is a small storage area that leads to the back yard, and we keep our recycling, odds and ends - and dog food there. 
As soon as I opened the sliding doors to the storage area to let Lily out, she started sniffing around excitedly, trying to reach under the shelves with her short little paws. I checked to see what she was so worked up about, and sure enough: there were tell-tale droppings, tiny paw prints on the dusty shelves - and a hole in the bag of dog food. Dammit! 

I took the dog food out, taped up the hole in the bag and put it into a safe place. I won't mention where, just in case those buggers can read!
I instructed Rich to bring mousetraps and Nina, our Blue Heeler - she's a great mouser. 

Once that was taken care of I turned on the heat in the living room and my bed room, took my bag of chips and plopped myself down on the bed. Shortly after that was when the tap-tapping started ...
Turns out, Maurice is actually the clanging of the furnace after turning it on for the first time after the summer, and not a raccoon. Phew!

I'm off now for my first walk of the day, Lily has me trained well.

Happy Sunday!

xoxo Miriam


Share:

4 comments

  1. Funny post Miriam!

    I visited aura and her family up north, was gone for a week,and mice have invaded. They dug up my houseplants! Why??? And used my bathroom cupboard as nursery. A few adult droppings and miniature/ baby droppings of 3-4 baby mice. Traps are out, war is on, wish I had a cat, even a loaner would be great! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and hugs to you both ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good luck with your mouse hunt! Ours seem to have left the building since the dog food left, our best mouser didn't find any. I hope you will be just as successful! 🐁🐀

      Delete
  2. Ah!!! I actually DO have an attic housemate in the wintertime! I thought he was an opossum, but now we think he's a squirrel. His name is Humphrey.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always think that we shouldn't turn down friends, no matter what shape they turn up in. Humphrey and Maurice came to us for a reason!

      Delete

Thanks for commenting! I always reply to comments here, so check back in a day or two!

© Farm Girl | All rights reserved.
Blog Layout Created by pipdig