Little Visitor

We have a new visitor in our home - it seems all types of creatures enjoy being in our presence. And of course they pick the best times. We have a home fellowship for missions conference in our home Saturday evening and our regional administrator is staying in our home that night and on Sunday. Maybe it will get even better and he'll decide to reside in the boys' room with our guest! We may be looking for a new mission board! :)

Who is our newest visitor? It's a chipmunk!

Yesterday as I was walking from the den into the kitchen, I saw something out of the corner of my eye under the cabinets. It ran so quickly I didn't get to see what it was. I assumed it was a mouse until it made a couple appearances later. It seems to be coming up from the basement by running up along the venting for the stove. Our stove vents downward through the floor and there is a gap along it. Now how it got into the basement is not completely known. The windows are all shut, but the garage door was left open for a while on Tuesday, so it may have run in during that time. There is a walkway leading from the garage into the basement.

This morning I tried leaving two doors open for a while to see if it would try to rejoin its family. Unfortunately for us, it's cold outside, so he probably prefers staying in our warm cozy home. I haven't seen him since then (he scared Gavin and put him in tears this morning) so maybe it worked. Or maybe he's just hiding somewhere else. Nice thought.

Don't get me wrong - I love animals (just ask those who know me best) and I think chipmunks are exceptionally cute. As a matter of fact when we discovered that the chipmunks had a home in the ground along the edge of our patio slab, I put peanuts out for them. Maybe they thought I was so nice I wouldn't mind them joining us in our home. Wrong.

Two people have told us about small live traps for mice and other small creatures. Hopefully we'll have time in the midst of missions conference to pick one up and put this little guy back where he belongs.

Until then I don't think I'll be putting the baby on the floor anytime soon!