Cant Keep Quiet!

The roofer came out today and actually saw part of the critter living in our roof. It must have been sleeping at the time because the roofer managed to see a paw sticking out of one of the gaps between the tiles and the front wall of the house.

It’s a squirrel.

I was afraid it was a rat or a bat.

Of course, the roofer can’t do anything about the roof until critter control comes out to get the squirrel. They are coming out on Monday.

I’m not sure how they are going to get the squirrel out since there is no attic or other space where a person can crawl in and set a trap or catch a critter. With a cathedral ceiling there is only a couple of inches between the ceiling and the roof. Naturally that’s why the squirrel had to dig out a nice spot in the wood.

It’s too bad I have to be at work on Monday. I’d love to see how the critter control person gets this particular critter from its nest.

Our front room is a living room with a cathedral ceiling. There is little space between the cathedral ceiling and the tile roof right above. Little space, not no space.

For over a year now we’ve been hearing noises coming from the the front top point of the roof. Not every day but from time to time. Typically we would hear it after it rained in the early evening. When we first started hearing the noises I recommended getting someone to come out and take care of the creature before it tore the roof apart.

It wasn’t done.

In June we found sawdust on a table behind a sofa in the living room. The table happens to be under where we were hearing the noises.

The pest control guy was called but we didn’t have termites. The roofer was called. He inspected the roof and said there was no way anything was getting under the roof at that spot.

The man must be blind. I wasn’t home when he came by that day. If I had been I would have asked him to explain how a small creature couldn’t get in through the gaping hole at the corner of the living room. On the very front of the roof over the living room there is a section were rounded tiles come over from the roof to the front of the house. On both ends there is an opening where the rounded tiles overlap the wall edge. Sort of like this C| except the top of that C should be just over the wall. At each site in the very front of this room where these rounded tiles overlap the roof and each other there is another gap.

Still, I wasn’t home when he came by to inspect the roof and he was positive that the damage to the roof wasn’t being caused by anything living between the ceiling and the roof.

It rained this afternoon and now the sun is setting. Not too long ago I heard what sounded like my dog gnawing apart a bone. At first I didn’t think anything of the noise. I had given my dog a bone earlier in the evening. She usually just hangs on to whatever bones I’ve given her until she feels that the bone is sufficiently aired out from its wrapping to be edible. She also usually eats them in that living room.

There was just one problem. The dog was sleeping behind my chair.

So I went to check out the living room. There’s a large pile of brand new sawdust on the table. There was the sound of something moving around coming from the ceiling.  I used a flashlight and found a spot where I could see right into the ceiling.

There’s definitely something living in my roof.

Mom’s calling the roofer tomorrow. I doubt he’ll come out when I can be there since I have to be at work tomorrow and school starts Monday. I can’t tell my new principal “Sorry, but I can’t be at school on Monday because I have to show the roofer where the creature that he insists isn’t living in my roof got in.”

Personally, I think we should be calling critter control. At least those people would know that the critter doesn’t have to be very big to get into a tight space and cause a lot of damage.

I mentioned a few days ago that my cell phone had died. Well today I finally got the chance to get a new one. I also switched phone companies.

My mom knew I was looking for a new phone and showed me an add in the paper this weekend for a family plan type service where I could get an extra phone for her. At the time I told her that I was going to go with a different company because they had GPS units built into the phone. Personally, I don’t know why all companies don’t have the ability to do that.

After work today I went to Verizon and bought a new phone for me…and one for my mom. That was over an hour ago. My mom is still playing around with her new phone. And periodically clapping her hands.

She’s so easy to please.

About the beginning of this year my gray cat, Stormi decided that she needed a hiding place from the kittens. The perfect hiding place was my bedroom.

I’m not real sure how this was such a great hiding place for her. After all, the kittens go up into my room looking for things to bring downstairs and play with at least once a week. Still, if we were looking for Stormi my bedroom was where she would be found.

Yesterday my sister and her family came over for dinner and birthday cake and ice cream. They are in town for the week from Alabama. My niece and I each have our birthdays later this month so we had a mini-celebration last night.

The male kitten, Will, vanished shortly after my sister and her family arrived.

My niece, almost 12, and my nephew, 7, spent the night last night. All was fine until my mother realized that Will was nowhere to be found. Grace was eating her dinner and Stormi was in the kitchen but Will wasn’t around. Mom looked everywhere for him and was very worried. I wasn’t because he’s not a brave soul and I knew that he wouldn’t go anywhere new without his sister leading the way. That meant he was hiding somewhere in the house.

I went up to bed and soon found out where he was hiding. Will had decided that under my bed in my bedroom was a great hiding place from loud children.

Stormi was not happy about Will hiding in her spot. Will slept on my bed and Stormi came upstairs and hissed at him for being in her spot. She then decided to share the bed.

The loud children have left but Will still won’t come down on his own. I’ve brought him down twice and mom has brought him down once. Even if he gets shut in another room he just waits for the door to open then bolts for my bedroom.

Mom is worried that he won’t eat. I’m not. He’ll eat when he gets hungry. More than likely that will be the middle of the night.

He’ll probably start coming down on his own sometime tomorrow. Just in time for the loud children terrors to come back over and spend the night again.

I took my dog with me to visit my cousins in Chiefland yesterday. I usually take her because they have a few acres that she can run around on and enjoy herself. They also have a dog she can play with while she’s there.

It’s been a couple of years since the dog and I had been to Chiefland. During our absence my cousins got a couple of horses that live on a part of their property that is separated by a fence from their house.

Artie didn’t notice the horses at first. Matter of fact, she didn’t notice them until I went outside and headed over to the corral with Karen.

The title of this post is what I think was going through her head when she saw the horses. She barked at them a bit and sniffed their heads when the horses leaned them down toward her. In the end she decided that she wouldn’t try to play with these “dogs” and as long as I wasn’t near them she wouldn’t go near them either.

I should have brought a camera.