Critter patrol

"Whatever it is has pretty big teeth," the critter control guy said.

Thanks so much. That makes me feel better.

He came today and looked at new evidence that an intruder is still in the house.

Yesterday, I was gone with Maddie for a couple of hours, and when I came back, I saw that it had eaten a whole pear that I had left on the counter to ripen. It had left little pieces of pear skin and had removed the supermarket sticker.

When I walked around the house today with Mike, the critter control man, we found the missing pear core in the living room next to an old beam that has a big space around the base. That's when Mike made his remark about the big teeth. It's possible that the critter is coming and going through the gap around the beam.

At first he thought it might be a squirrel, but now he thinks it is a rat.

He set two traps, one in the living room near the beam and another on the kitchen counter. He made a trail of peanut shells into the trap, where apple halves hang from the top.

If something goes for the bait, it will be caught alive and will be going crazy. Mike said I should call him at that point. I can take the trap outside if I want, or I can just ignore it until he gets here.

In the general scheme of things this is no big deal, but still, I'm not too happy with the idea of a rat, or even a squirrel, running around in the house.

So, we'll see what tomorrow brings.