kelric
Feline Member
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2007
- Messages
- 2,169
- MBTI Type
- INtP
I live in the suburbs. Not the distant, outlying, "undeveloped 5 years ago" suburbs, but the inner ones, stuffed with 50+ year old neighborhoods. Over the years I've had a few unwelcome visitors (read: animals) in my house. A squirrel, a bird, and on two separate occasions, a large orange and white cat. About 15 minutes ago those relatively mundane visitors were topped by a new one.
So I was sitting at my computer reading when I heard a faint rattling. I assumed that it was something outside the window - we do have a number of aforementioned squirrels, bunnies, etc. that like to hang around. Then the rattling got louder, and I heard a "clunk" noise. Not good. I was just about ready to get up and go check the garage when the grate on the front of the fireplace shook.
Now I never, ever use the fireplace. I never even open it up (except for the one time I had to rescue a bird that had somehow fallen down the chimney). I figured something similar had happened, so I opened the front door to provide an easy escape route for anything that might come out and got a flashlight to see what was going on. There was a lot of shredded foam at the bottom (told you, I never use it). This was more than a bit unusual - even more so was the clearly recently dead squirrel lying in the foam chunks
.
This was just a bit disturbing, but barring an attack by gruesome zombie rodents, that squirrel wasn't what made the noise. I didn't see anything else though, so I got a shovel and a garbage bag and started to clean up. I'd gotten the squirrel and about half the foam into the garbage bag when *PLOP*... something quite large fell into the fireplace, almost on top of my little ash shovel.
:horor:
Yes, I admit that I screamed just a little bit (in a most dignified and manly way, of course). I was just a little bit surprised, but I wasn't the only one... a large gray something shot up the chimney like a rocket before I could get a good look at it (I was, after all, running away... um, I mean conducting a strategic retreat). I went to the bathroom to get a band-aid for my hand (which I'd managed to cut against the shovel handle). When I came back into the living room, guess what was sticking its nose out of the fireplace...
a RACCOON. About as large as a big cat, gray, with black patches on its face, a ringed tail, the whole works. There was a RACCOON in my fireplace! My first thought was "I hope it's not rabid"... second was "I hope it runs out the front door, and not into the kitchen."
Fortunately it looked around, and seeing the open front door, softly padded across the living room and vanished out the door. Unfortunately I was too slow to find my camera and catch it in the act. I think I need to call someone about fixing whatever about my chimney is letting these animals in... there's obviously something pretty wrong up there...
So I was sitting at my computer reading when I heard a faint rattling. I assumed that it was something outside the window - we do have a number of aforementioned squirrels, bunnies, etc. that like to hang around. Then the rattling got louder, and I heard a "clunk" noise. Not good. I was just about ready to get up and go check the garage when the grate on the front of the fireplace shook.
Now I never, ever use the fireplace. I never even open it up (except for the one time I had to rescue a bird that had somehow fallen down the chimney). I figured something similar had happened, so I opened the front door to provide an easy escape route for anything that might come out and got a flashlight to see what was going on. There was a lot of shredded foam at the bottom (told you, I never use it). This was more than a bit unusual - even more so was the clearly recently dead squirrel lying in the foam chunks
. This was just a bit disturbing, but barring an attack by gruesome zombie rodents, that squirrel wasn't what made the noise. I didn't see anything else though, so I got a shovel and a garbage bag and started to clean up. I'd gotten the squirrel and about half the foam into the garbage bag when *PLOP*... something quite large fell into the fireplace, almost on top of my little ash shovel.
:horor:
Yes, I admit that I screamed just a little bit (in a most dignified and manly way, of course). I was just a little bit surprised, but I wasn't the only one... a large gray something shot up the chimney like a rocket before I could get a good look at it (I was, after all, running away... um, I mean conducting a strategic retreat). I went to the bathroom to get a band-aid for my hand (which I'd managed to cut against the shovel handle). When I came back into the living room, guess what was sticking its nose out of the fireplace...
a RACCOON. About as large as a big cat, gray, with black patches on its face, a ringed tail, the whole works. There was a RACCOON in my fireplace! My first thought was "I hope it's not rabid"... second was "I hope it runs out the front door, and not into the kitchen."
Fortunately it looked around, and seeing the open front door, softly padded across the living room and vanished out the door. Unfortunately I was too slow to find my camera and catch it in the act. I think I need to call someone about fixing whatever about my chimney is letting these animals in... there's obviously something pretty wrong up there...
that was rather hillarious! Nothing living except for my houseplants and dog ever gets into my house- I feel almost deprived now 
Now I have a lot of reading to do! 
