In Search of Rocky--(The Flying Squirrel)

It all started this way....

It was a dark and stormy night...

No, Really! It WAS a dark and stormy night when Larry walked into our house to find things amiss. In fact it was Halloween! And he was spooked. A magazine was on the floor. Dish towels had fallen off the towel rack. A votive candle holder had been knocked off a table. As he investigated further, he found the Venetian blinds in our bedroom on the second floor were tangled or down and he couldn't fix them.
    
There were wood shavings on the window sill.... and then more under a closet door in the loft where something had chewed the entire bottom of the door and pulled 4" slivers off, just for good measure.


More proof of the invasion and perhaps the entrance point was discovered in the basement. Something had chewed a hole in the ceiling tiles, and left a mess on the floor.



Where was I? In Iowa, and very happy to be there as he called and relayed what he was finding. I think I was happier realizing it was not a burglar, but an animal, but at any rate, I was really happiest knowing I wasn't there! So much for being the supportive wife.

Fast forward a month and here's what we know. Our home was invaded by both mice and flying squirrels. When I got home a week later, I realized the squirrel had actually run across the tops of the valences in the living room and the top of the china hutch, knocking over Styrofoam pumpkins that were on top.

An exterminator was called and he popped his head through the tiny 'man hole' in the bedroom closet that leads to a true crawl space and quickly proclaimed, "Oh yeah, There's a nest, food piles, tracks, (and other signs of rodent activity) up here." Oh goody!

He told me what it would take, (and what it would cost!) to get rid of the varmints and I wondered if it wouldn't be easier to call Bullwinkle to come round up his trusted buddy, Rocky. However, although we live in the North Woods, the North Woods of Georgia is not a familiar habitat for Moose, so Bullwinkle probably wasn't going to get us out of this fix. We hired the exterminator. He would start work plugging holes, setting traps, and removing said varmints, after Thanksgiving.

 Meanwhile, it was still evident something was visiting at night. One morning as Larry went to the kitchen to start his coffee he found mail knocked off the kitchen island onto the floor. I checked the bowl on the counter and discovered something had nibbled two of the tomatoes I had bought the day before. Mouse? Squirrel? Whatever it was, it had neatly skirted the sticky pad our pest control company had placed hoping to catch our critters. After that, I left an apple out, just as a 'critter activity check'.

Yep. We had critters in the house. We were counting down to Thanksgiving. Since we would be gone we needed to wait until after we got home to get serious about catching them. (After a week away, no one really wants to come home and find a dead mouse in the house.)

Our story doesn't end here. Stay tuned for Part 2.

To Be Continued.....