Critter Capture

 I wouldn't necessarily describe myself as a risk taker...but I take a risk every time I step away from the kids for longer than 1 second. I never know exactly what will happen when my eyes aren't on them.

In this case, I had very quickly run to the garage to get a level. And as I am walking back down stairs I hear, "Mom! Mom! Come quick!" My adreleline is surging because I also hear a lot of screaming.

What happended, so I was told, was that the cat had caught a chipmunk. Clayton wanted to be a "creature rescue-er." So he "saved" the chipmunk from the cat. Clarey, being the last one out of the house, didn't close the door behind herself. To escape the cat and the boy, the chipmunk sought refuge in our basement. In the bookshelf actually. And this is where I found all three children and one terrified chipmunk.

Normally, I try not to care too much about these critters. In Ottawa I was at war with them. We had perfectly good woods in our backyard, no pets and yet they decided our house should be their home, too. But this little guy had had a pretty rough 3 minutes. I could see him panting as he peered out at us from behind a book. Yet, he could not stay where he was.

Very quickly I closed all the doors and said a little prayer we were faster than him. I handed the boys a butterfly net each and took Clarey's for my own. Clarey, not wanting to be left out, grabbed an aquarium net. Very slowly and carefully I started to move books and gently encouraged the chipmunk out of his hiding spot.

He took off across our basement. Clayton and I were quick on his tail. Praise the Lord I caught him before he had a chance to get under or behind anything else. Wanting to capture the moment, we went through the house to let him go so I could grab the camera. After we were on the front porch and all entrances were securely closed, we let him go. He took off for the woods. I am absolutely sure he will never come close to our house again.

 Because catching a chipmunk in our basement wasn't enough, the next day, Clayton caught a mole. Yes, he caught a mole. See the waterhose behind him? He noticed the ground moving. And since he was already watering the hydrangea bush, he decided to flood it out. Clayton was waiting with his trusty butterfly net and snatched it right up.

We put it in the bug keeper to observe it a bit. I'm sure the poor little guy was totally blinded by such bright sunlight. It kept it's tiny eyes firmly shut the entire time. He also tried to escape by burrowing out of the net and the plastic container. At least we didn't have to worry about it jumping like we did with the chipmunk.

The kids were really interested in it. We spent a long time looking at all of it's features and talked about why they were like they were. The longer we looked and the longer we observed the more I liked this little guy. But he has also destroyed our yard. He's killed plants in my flower beds. Once again, we have lots of woods he is more than welcome to live under.

Knowing I couldn't release it and knowing Cyle was out of town and knowing that I absolutely could not kill it, we walked it over to our neighbors and left it there, secure in the bug keeper, for Jeff to deal with. Thank goodness we have neighbors.

I'm almost afraid of what we'll catch next.