When the going gets tufty....

If it's not one thing it's another.

About this time last year we were tackling swifts in the loft, feral mice hanging around in gangs in room corners and slugs dripping off the ceiling.

I was called off of our sofa by an anxious R the other night. There were footsteps in the loft – were the builders we are in dispute with planning a surprise attack on us or stealing our roof as a part payment? It was a possibility but only briefly – the sound and speed of the footsteps would have meant they had hired an impossibly manic dwarf assasin with clawed toes.

It was a creature of some sort however and neither R or I wanted to go up and have a look to find out what it was. “I'll go up there tomorrow” I promised.

By the time I got up R had already called out a pest control company. The man came quickly and just as quickly concluded it was a squirrel. This was a relief – at least it wasn't a rat or a Japanese loft dwelling demon.

Some rather large traps were laid.

“I kill 95% of reported squirrels” he said.

He said he will return in a week to remove the body.

So far it appears the squirrel belongs to the 5% Club. He was still re-arranging the furniture, or whatever they do, the other night. (R is worried that it's vandalising a watercolour of a parrot that she has up there - the philistines!!!).

I listen out for his scratchy little sprints across the roof wondering when a mad dash will be terminated with a nasty snapping sound.

UPDATE: Saturday has come again and guess what? No corpse...no trace of squirrel activities...not a single monkey nut consumed. The man will come next week but this one is deinitely looking like a five-percenter. Or it is a ghost demon after all.

This scenario isn't unknown to this blog - remember this from a post a year back?

(The image link above is to an image from the film "the Grudge" if you care about such things).

grudge horror squirrel pest