Varmints!

(All I want for Christmas is a Varmint Trap)

I have been a tad jumpy lately. You see we have a rodent problem. It could be a squirrel, a rat or a raccoon, honestly we don't know what is going BUMP BUMP CLAW GNAW in the night. All I know is that it is something pretty darn big!

The first time I heard it Den was at church and I was home alone with just Roman. I was on the computer when I kept hearing the loudest sound coming from the kitchen. I was pretty sure that our ice maker was on the fritz or something. As the noise continued, and even increased, I thought that our fridge was going to give out on us. But something just didn't sound quite right...

So I hopped up and slowly walked towards the kitchen and I could hear the sound of something tearing away at wood down below the kitchen sink. I hopped up on the island afraid that whatever little demon was making all the racket may very well come bounding out from under the sink and run around the kitchen with me. It was quite unsettling....or heart racing...or TERRIFYING!

After Den came home I told him about the noise and he thought it was a mouse. I was certain I knew what kind of noise a mouse made and this was far more fierce and intense, but you know us girls and our vivid scary imaginations (insert eye rolling...hehehe).

Of course, the sound didn't make an ovation, to which I was relieved, but also a little frustrated that I seemed like a silly woman.

That night...late late into the night that booger started to do the same song and dance but this time it sounded like it was in the walls of our bedroom. It was so loud that Den hopped up and started doing the boogy dance to try to scare it away. It stopped, but only for a bit and went right back to gnawing at wood. A TAD UNSETTLING in the wee hours of the dark....

Hoping that whatever it was wouldn't make it's grand entrance after Den was at work I would hear that horrible racket after Den would leave in the mornings, when the house was still dark. Pitch dark.This little beast was making it's way around the inside of our walls, or at least I hoped that this was the case, always worried to catch the little bandit red handed with no way of beating the daylights out of it!

Needless to say, Den came home last night and went into the basement to lay varmint traps, when we noticed that the hot water pipe from under the kitchen sink had been gnawed right through. So for the last several days it had been pouring hot water all over the basement floor. A little spendy and messy discovery.

Then it all started to come together. The bird seed bags that were at the top of the stairs leading down into the basement kept getting spilled. I thought it was just the carelessness of the boys, but now I understood that it was the varmint that was tearing into the bag and eating...probably growing in size everyday! Right outside my living room! Okay this may be where Den thinks I have a vivid imagination....I mean I do, but it's also on the money!!

So we have left glue traps for the little scoundrel. Surprisingly, we heard nothing for the first time last night. Maybe it was all the activity that was going on last night in the basement by Den and Abram....but eventually that rat, raccoon, squirrel will be back. It will get stuck on the glue trap and probably cry out with fear and frustration and it will probably be fighting for it's life to try to release itself from the glue trap. It will probably be the one right by the door to my living room so I can jump on the couch and scream and it will most likely happen while Den is at work....yeah looking forward to THAT evening....

To be continued.....