Part 1
This morning, I awoke to an odd noise, downstairs – little clicks and a high pitched “yeeeeh, yech, yeeeeh…” Something, an animal was in my house. I went downstairs and turned on all the lights. I looked under the couch and chairs, under the bed in the guest room, behind the big reading chair in the library. The door to the lower level was shut so, I didn’t go down there. Nothing. My imagination?
I returned upstairs for my morning ritual of shower, shave, vitamins and a good teeth brushing. Still, my mind was on my intruder, where was it hiding?
I went downstairs, made my pot of French Roast, fixed a bowl of mueslix with a sliced banana and turned on my laptop for the news and mail. In Asheville, I’d decided to pass on a daily newspaper, but I do miss it sometimes. My attention drifted.
Then, I heard a little shuffle and saw a quick shadow. I really did have a visitor. Now, to action! CAPTURE & CONTAIN! That was my objective. I’ll need to be a little creative here. How about a stick (a bamboo shaft) and my fish net? Yeah, that should work. The cardboard container box for my Wii system should do for a container, temporarily. In less than a minute I had collected my capture tools.
It was there in my food room, my bistro – a combination kitchen and dining room where I spend time reading, working on my laptop and eating – under my tea cart of all places, looking out. At first, all I saw were the two shiny black eyes. Then I could see the long face and round ears. A weasel? A young martin? I remembered from my trapping days as a youth, there are few animals as fearless and aggressive as a weasel, vicious in fact. In an instant he ran past the hand net when I poked it from behind – so fast. But there was nowhere to go or hide. I cornered it in front of my pots cabinet and got the hand net over most of his nine inch body. Adrenaline, whoa. I could see a long tail which was whipping nervously. Its body was dark with a white chest, it looked more frightened than mad.
I knew it could bite, so I kept my hands out of range. The hand net was deep enough so it couldn’t jump out as I flipped it over into the Wii box. The top flaps closed and I put a heavy pot on top. Done. It was making a lot of noise inside, but it was contained.
I plopped down in my bentwood rocker to collect myself. That was exciting, even fun, but now what?
(my story continues, click here)