Oh Dear, that's not good.

For the last couple days, KC has been occasionally staring at the fireplace in the living room. He would just sit there, silently and stare. It has glass doors, so I looked in. Nope, nothing. Besides, if something was running up and down (say, a mouse) it would be able to get out of the fireplace upstairs in our bedroom. Right? At least, I would think so. And KC wasn't interested in that fireplace (well, he hasn't been interested ever since that unfortunate first day and his curiosity).


Last night, Larry commented that he thought something was in the fireplace to keep KC looking. He started to open the glass doors. I suggested that he NOT do that as it was late, and if a mouse was in there, it would run around the house-with a big cat chasing it, followed by a clumsy smaller cat. The thought wasn't pretty. I looked again through the glass-nope nothing. I listened. Nope.


Tonight, Larry is watching TV and KC is doing his daily stare at the fireplace. I thought maybe some branches were hitting it outside. You know, making noises (and being nothing living, breathing, and well, dirty with ashes). Larry goes to open the glass doors and I hear a loud noise. Hmmmm, that isn't a cat sound. Not a manchild sound either. Or a sound that Larry makes-even on bad days. LOL


Oh, Vicky, I think there is something in the fireplace
Oh?
Yeah.
Hmmmm
(yeah, we have brilliant conversations in our house)

So I try to see. I go find a flashlight. It's one of those new ones with the LED lights. Not bright enough. So I put a brighter light there. And I look through the glass doors. Hmmm, nothing . . . but . . . maybe-over there, behind the log. Something gray. Well, it would be gray, wouldn't it? I mean, there are ashes in there. I look closer. I see a gray fluffy tail.




Now, in case you haven't noticed, mice don't have fluffy tails. I promise they don't. And if it was a mouse, it was a BIG mouse. Nope, it was a squirrel.

Well, dang it all. I can handle mice, I can handle birds, even occasional chipmunks. But, squirrels are mean. And they bite.

So, we shut all the doors to every room. Put the kitten in the basement (he doesn't normally go there), blocked the room as best we could, shut the drapes and opened the front and back doors. I wanted him to run out the back door. No windows could be seen (the thought of a squirrel climbing up the drapes to the window . . . oh, let's not even go there). I got a big plastic storage thing (got a lot of those sitting around for water, etc).

Ok, we each have our defense-a broom.

And we open the door and at that time I say . . .

Hey, where's the camera?

Let's just say, Larry wasn't amused and said,
This is NOT the time for the camera.

He had a point.

So, we open the screen doors.

There he is. Looking at us. And a fine example of squirrel he is. Big, round, fluffy and WIDE eyed. We move a broom behind him and he steps out a bit, pauses, looks around and takes off out the back door. Two leaps and he is gone. NOT a footprint or ash to be found in the room.

Toooo cool.

But now, we get to clean the fireplace. He had to be in there for a couple days.

PS:
My hair is still short. Very short. But its really wash and wear. I mean, what else can I do? I don't really have a small curling iron.