Uninvited Guests

Working the most menial task of unloading the clothes from the washer to the dryer is like washing your hands after you go to the bathroom (at least for most women, apparently men don’t wash their hands very often).  You’re on autopilot except when a beady little eye is staring back at you and is attached to a light brown furry body that moves, not to mention it is only three feet away from you. Then the drama begins. It could jump at you and mull your face or it could jump from the window sill and into the ceiling grid and nestle itself in the insulation.  Thank God he (or she, I didn’t have time check the undercarriage) chose the latter.    

Your first thought must have been I had a friendly little mouse in my basement, but no. It was a chipmunk. Yes, a chipmunk. 

Now your second thought turns into a question. How does a chipmunk get into the basement?

At the time, I had no clue.  I ran upstairs and waited for the hubby to get home. Chipmunks are rodents. They carry disease and germs. For all I know, it could have rabies. Granted it wasn’t foaming at the mouth and it didn’t attack me, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. I couldn’t even think of all the places it was touching down there.

Instead I went out to buy some rat traps so the hubby could set them up when he got home.

The hubby goes down stairs to assess the situation. A few minutes later, I hear a commotion and he yells up from downstairs to get a bucket.  I get a bucket and run it down only to find him chasing this chipmunk around the basement. Apparently, he’s been there for awhile because he is slowing down (lack of food and water), but still fast enough to evade the hubby. So I come up behind the hubby to hand him the bucket and I slowly back away only to realize I stepped on something. And it wasn’t hard either. It was mushy with fur. I jumped probably 20 feet (okay more like 2 feet and it’s possible a little scream slipped). Thank God, I had shoes on.

Okay so two chipmunks made it into the basement. One was dead and one was on the run. If there was any more, I was going to freak out.  I’m not usually scared of critters outside, but it’s different when they’re in your house.

It turns out only two made it into the basement. The funny thing is you would never guess how they made it in.

The dryer vent. Somehow they thought the hose was some kind of fun slide, but the fun ended when the hose lead into the dryer. Then their survival instinct kicked in and they chewed two different holes through the hose into the basement. The hubby changed the hose to metal and put some kind of screen cover on the vent outside. No more plastic for us and no more chipmunks.