Fast-forward a few weeks and we were welcoming my sister Emily for a visit. Emily said she couldn’t wait to kick back and relax; the past few months had been busy and stressful, so it would be great just to catch up on her sleep before we all pitched in to host our annual family reunion.
All went smoothly for a few days, but then one night Emily was awakened by loud, desperate-sounding scratching and banging noises. It seemed to her that someone was trying to get into the house by coming up from underneath it. She grabbed a walking stick in one hand and her cell phone in the other, and stood by the air vent in her room, determined to hit the would-be intruder as he emerged and then call the police. But what sort of intruder could emerge from an air vent? ‘A small cat-burglar?’ she caught herself thinking.
By breakfast-time she had awakened our mother and come to get me, and together we called our brave friend Donnie, who used to be a spelunker and was not afraid to go down the basement steps. We huddled at the top while he ventured into the abyss. There was silence, and then, “There’s been something living down here,” Donnie called up to us. “I think it might be a possum,” he added. “Or a cat.”
“Possum” was all we needed to hear. I grabbed the phone book, we called a wildlife removal service, and by the time our 36 cousins were arriving for the opening-night supper of the family reunion, Emily was watching a wildlife biologist inspect the basement. “I see evidence of a fairly large cat,” he told her authoritatively. “Also squirrels. And here’s part of a rabbit’s leg,” he added, holding it up. “There’s been a snake down here, too,” he called as she retreated hastily up the stairs. “Yeah, right,” she called back, certain by now that he was kidding. How could there be such a menagerie in the basement?
The biologist concluded that a raccoon had succeeded in removing one of the foundation vents, allowing the outside to come in, and creating a five-star animal hotel just beneath our feet. He banged around down there to chase everything out, replaced the missing vent, and set traps to catch the would-be guests: two outside and one, “just in case,” inside. Emily went to sleep that night vastly relieved — until 3:30 a.m., when once again she heard loud and desperate sounds coming from the air vent in her room, which was actually bouncing up and down.
An inspection of the traps revealed, at last, the presence of that pesky cat, who has now been removed to some other locale — not yours, I hope. We have also caught three possums so far, including a big one in the “just in case” trap. And Emily, who said she just hated to leave, is now safely back in Illinois, much missed but presumably sleeping more soundly. But, um, where is that snake?
Susan Harper is director of the Commerce Public Library. She lives in Commerce.
