There’s a creature in my chimney.
No, that’s not an assessment of my mental state (ahem, Tim), but describes a happening here at my house.
Last night, I started to build a fire in the fireplace and noticed the dog was getting intensely interested in what I was doing. Suddenly, I understood why when I heard scratching on metal — there was a squirrel or other animal in the flue.
Well, this isn’t new to me, so I closed the doors on the fireplace (it’s a two-sided fireplace with glass doors in the living room and on the other side in the kitchen). I cleared a path through the kitchen to the rear patio doors, and opened the back fireplace doors waiting for the squirrel to drop down, then run out.
Nope. It wouldn’t come out. I heard it scratching around, then silence the rest of the night. I figured that it had climbed up and out. Just in case, I closed the glass and left the flue open.
Just now when I got home, the dog was guarding the fireplace and I heard the scratching as I entered the house. He’s back! I fiddled with the flue a bit to get him to come down, but no luck.
I figure I’ll give him until the weekend, and then call a chimney company to get him out and put a new cap on the chimney.
It’s wildlife central here in urban Arlington.
[Update: It’s a squirrel – I can see his tail as he lies just inside the damper. I’m worried about him, especially if he’s been there for at least 24 hours, not coming out. I put some crackers and water in the fireplace for him if he should venture down from his perch, but I’m worried that he might be too afraid, or worse, injured or weak.]
I once smelt something unspeakable coming from my vents and to make a long story short it was 12lb dead opposom that had gotten caught in the insualation in my crawl space (a nice warm, damp area for decomposition). When the maintance guys went to fish it out it fell to the ground and exploded. Thank god I wasn’t there to experience that part… they described it as ‘being about the size of a thanksgiving turkey.’
I couldn’t eat for like a week.