Visitor

Last night, I went to see David Sedaris. He was awesome. While walking home with Mary, we heard a cat crying and crying. We turned around to find it was following us. Mary went her way, and I carried on towards 83 Durant: so did the cat. She's very cute. But we're not a cat household. Little kitty was VERY eager to come inside, and Jake even went out to check on her. We shoo'ed her on her way (with a little help from Carter -- she clearly doesn't like dogs). And we thought we were done.

Oops.

This evening, we heard a plaintive meowing out back. Kitty had made her way around to our back porch (perhaps she spent the night there?) and was eager to join our family. Lucy was DELIGHTED to see her, and the two of them did seem to get on quite well. The poor cat is clearly a housecat -- very affectionate, and totally wants to jump into your arms. But she has no collar.

We fed her. I know we shouldn't have, but we did. She was clearly famished. We're planning to take her to the Lowell Humane Society on Monday if she's still around. She's very sweet, but we just aren't a cat house.
While we were downstairs entertaining this little creature, our actual pet, Carter, was upstairs. Alone. With a table of cheese. Yup. It seems he got himself a nice hunk of smoked gouda for his patience. Carter: smoked gouda; Cat: canned tuna; Humans: we are suckers.

An Open Letter to the Creature

This is an Open Letter to the Creature who was stockpiling rice in a box in the basement:

Dear Creature,

I suspect you are a mouse, or perhaps small group of mice. I salute your industry. It appears that you have been very busy and/or well-organized. You have brought what I guess to be at least an entire cup of rice to your sneaky hiding place. I would never have found it had I not been looking for a box to pack some things in that I need to ship. I never would have guessed that you would hide in the bottom of a cardboard box once used to hold paper.

I do have a few questions for you. First of all, how long have you been going about this project of rice relocation? How much rice are you capable of carrying in your tiny, tiny arms? Also, where are you now? Are you still hiding somewhere in our home, perhaps in another box, or have you moved on to rice-ier pastures?

Also, were you planning to eat all of this rice yourself? It seems like a lot for one mouse. Perhaps you have an eating disorder? The fact that the rice in the box was mixed with nearly equal parts of -- uh, how to say this delicately? -- your excrement (which looks alarmingly like black rice) makes me suspect you have some issues. Seriously, dude, that is totally gross. The image of you sitting in a dark cardboard box, surrounded by rice and your own poo is not a pretty picture.

Finally, one last question, Creature: where did you get the rice? We have not yet determined the source from which you created your stash. Did you gnaw a hole in a bag somewhere that we have not yet found? Was it in the upstairs pantry, or the basement storage pantry? If you want to just leave us a note, that would help. Thanks.

Well, Mr. or Ms Mouse, I have taken your rice (and poo) and thrown it in the trash. If you want it, you can find it outside in the dumpster. Please, please stop with the hoarding....at least inside our house. And if you see an odd looking contraption made of wood and wire that seems to be inviting you to eat some delicious peanut butter, run. Run like the wind, little friend.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Love,
83 Durant Street

P.S. Photographic evidence of your infraction:

Critter Motel?

You're probably aware of the recent post describing our discovery of some manner of nest in our car's air filter. Jake guessed that it was a chipmunk.

There is more news.

This morning, while looking around in the basement to check on the dehumidifier and such, I noticed something in the bare stone wall in the furnace room: a nest. The furnace room is the room closest to the driveway where we park the car that formerly housed a chipmunk (we think). The presence (again) of a couple of empty acorn husks makes us think that this, too, is a chipmunk nest. In fact, I began to think (given the placement of nesting materials and the acorn) that it's entirely possible that chipmunks (or whatever creatures) have just been squatting in our basement for a while.

Apparently (or should I say possibly?), we're operating a Critter B&B.

I have since evicted any creatures using the vacuum to remove the nesting materials. Jake is setting the Have-a-Heart trap as I type. I'll keep you updated if there are further developments on the critter front.

Creature Feature: The Automotive Version

As you know from previous posts, our house has been host to a variety of wildlife. Today Jake and John discovered the traces of a new visitor to a new site: our car! While changing the air filter in our Toyota Corolla, Jake noticed some, um, debris. And acorns. No need to take our word for it; check it out:

It seems that some small creature had taken up residence under the hood of the car, under the air filter. John suggests that it was fine place with plenty of room. Really, it's a shame that we evicted him, poor little guy (or gal).

I suppose we should be thankful that our situation wasn't as bad as this person's (I googled "animal nest car air filter" and believe me, you find some scary stuff).

Then I found this info:

It a GOOD idea to leave the car ventilation in recirculate mode whenever you park since it seems that mice like to find their way into your car and make a nest on top of the filter. Recirculate mode closes the outside air entrance to the filter.

Seems like maybe we should start taking that advice.

Jake is guessing that it was a chipmunk, given the half-eaten acorns and the fact that we've seen some of the little guys running about in front of the house. I'm wondering if it's the mini-mouse, or perhaps the return of flying squirrel.

Creature Feature

Given our recent acts of destroying the habitats around us, we should have expected this. But no one really expects to walk into their dining room and find a mouse just hanging out, not even attempting to run away. We've had uninvited creatures here before (see here and here for a trip down memory lane with past critters) but never with such an attitude.

This morning when Lucy and Carter and I returned from our walk, we came face to fur with this tiny little guy.

I immediately locked Carter in the bathroom, as I figured his prey instinct would kick in and we'd have a real mess (and traumatized child) if he was in the same room as the small, fuzzy creature. Lucy was delighted and showed the mouse her teddy bear. The mouse walked around a bit, but showed no signs of desiring to escape. I grabbed a glass bowl and put it over him, without much difficulty.

Lucy was thrilled to be able to get up close and personal with the mouse. She showed him her lizards and decorated his bowl prison with stickers while I hunted for the camera.

After a frantic phone call to Mom and then to Jake, I decided to take Lucy to school so that I could deal with the critter without her "help." She was very excited to tell her teacher about her new mousey friend.
When I got home, I slid a file folder under the bowl, then a cookie tray, and carried the whole mess outside. Here's what it looked like:

I took him all the way down to the bottom of the yard and let him loose. Here he is:

No, he's not dead. Just sleepy, apparently. He sat there for a minute, and then I shooed him off, and he ran for cover under some leaves.


That ends today's installment of All Creatures Great and Small of 83 Durant.

We heart Freecycle

We really like Freecycle, a place where we go to get rid of stuff that's still useful, and where we sometimes find useful things for ourselves (like Carter's kennel!). Today, while browsing, I noticed this great ad, from Freecycle:

Wanted A Very Large Bird Cage For A Very Large Bird

Seems like a start to a great story.

83 Durant Creature Feature

About a week ago, I noticed a few holes in the ground on the driveway side of the house, over in the nicely landscaped area behind the fence. Upon closer inspection, I found four holes, all roughly the same size, with one of them being disturbingly close to the foundation.

I feared that these holes indicated that some critter-type being had taken up residence. A snake? A mole? What could it be? My first plan was to cover up a few of the holes with bricks, just to see what would happen. I forgot about the holes for a week, but was reminded of them again today. Jake and I checked them out, and lo and behold, the critter dug a hole around and under the brick so he could get back into his original hole.
He (or she) seems to have dug up a great deal of dirt. So the questions, dear readers:
1) What manner of creature do you think it is?
2) What should we do about this creature? [if you say "keep it as a pet and playmate for Carter, I will not be amused.]

I'm pretty sure it's not a flying squirrel, but I have no idea what it really is.