Klaus the mouse, and adventures in home ownership

I was just sitting here writing the last blog, and Klaus was sleeping sweetly behind me, when I heard a sort of scurrying sound coming from the dining room, sort of like the sound of Klaus's claws on the laminate floor. I turned and sure enough Klaus was behind me, and not in the dining room. What could that be, then? I listened some more, and was sure it was not leaves or something, but an animal. A rat? In the dining room? Why was my dog, a supposed hunter, sleeping through this? (Poor domesticated beast...) I got up carefully and peered around the doorway into the dining room.

Sure enough, it was a squirrel! Just sitting in the dining room! We have a slider in there, which opens into a screened in porch, and someone *ahem Michael!* had left the screen door wide open. Seemed fine, since there is a fully screened porch beyond that, but apparently our little bushy tailed friend had a secret entrance into the porch, and had helped himself up the stairs and into the dining room. He was poking around, checking things out.

Klaus continued to sleep soundly through all of this.

So I took matters into my own hands. Not wanting to freak out the squirrel (I have heard they can be nasty!), I opted against throwing one of Klaus's toys at him, though the squeaky hedgehog would have been a reasonable choice for this. Instead, I sort of hit the wall in hopes of startling him away. It worked, but I wasn't sure if there might be another. (Now I was paranoid!) Klaus continued to sleep. I looked carefully around the room, between boxes, and didn't see anything. Now Klaus became interested, and came up behind me.

"Go get the squirrel!" I said. "That's your job! You're the hunter!" And what did my mousey dog do? He backed up! He backed away from the doorway and into the other room, into safety.

I guess he's only interested in bunnies. What a wuss!

I do believe our home to be squirrel free at this point, and the screen door has been closed to prevent any further mishaps, or embarrassment for my once again sleeping wimp of a dog.