A Chipmunk in the House

Kitties in a house can be fun – they have a fascination with paper bags and boxes, rather like the average 12 month old at a birthday party is more interested in the wrapping rather than what is inside.

But when they were obviously active, I walked over to investigate.  Two kitties fixated with looking under the seating area next to the fridge.  I decided to search out a flashlight.

Yep, something was behind the fridge. It could have been a mouse, a butterfly or, as it turned out, a chipmunk.

The kids got involved. What would we do with this furry thingy? We obviously had to get it out, and preferably without the cats taking it out for supper. Their plan was to drag the appliance out and risk the cats finding the furry fella, or me having the damn thing roaming the house! Neither were appealing, so we moved to plan B.

We needed to make a pathway between the hiding place to the back door – about 8 feet. First we relocated all kitties to other places – with the door shut. A barrier made from old bits of wallboard still waiting to go to the trash.  The, the the poor little thing found that the fridge was pulled away from the wall, he was harrassed by an umbrella, and then he headed, with lots of encouragement,  for freedom.  Once outside he found refuge in the understory and vines. 

I would not have slept easily with a rodent on the prowl, so I was very happy that this event was over.We still do not know how it got inside, but he seemed unharmed, so perhaps the cat had not dragged him in and he just wandered in by mistake.

One lump or two?

Somehow I thought I had posted to this site since March! Goodness, time to get caught up again.

Anyway, Friday was a tough start to the morning. The orange juice come out of the fridge frozen!  On close inspection the bacon in the bottom and the box of salad were also both frozen.  What in the world was going on?  I am hoping that it was a little blue slider-thing that sits at the top of the fridge between the freezer and the refridgerator section. It goes straight into the freezer and was letting ultra cold air into the wrong part. I am not sure the official funtion of this idea, but it does rather mess up ones morning when the thing malfunctions.

And for those who are not familiar with the phrase -’one lump or two’ – it was a common phrase to use in England, and probably elsewhere, when inquiring how many lumps of sugar you wanted in your tea.  Sugar always came in lumps for tea, and brown demerara sugar was used for coffee.  It was never used for orange juice though!