The uninvited guest

Last week I had an uninvited guest in my home.

Tuesday morning I was almost done getting ready for the day and leaving my house when I noticed my son was opening and shutting a door.  A couple minutes later he goes "Mom! I just saw a rat go into the closet."

Naturally I freaked and said "WHAT?!?!?!"  I went and looked.  I saw a very *tiny* little body creep out from under the closet door and then disappear as soon as it saw me.

No, not a rat.  A mouse. So what did I do?  Well, like the big brave girl I am, I called my husband and said "V saw a mouse in the house."

My ever so patient husband, who had just left the house 5 minutes previously, turned around and came back home and walked into the house to see to me and my son walking in place because that seemed to be the only thing that kept our visitor in the closet.

My husband got one look at it and said "That's not a mouse."

And he was right.

When I got a better look at that tiny, two-inch long creature, it was pretty obvious that it wasn't a mouse.  It had a pointed nose and no cute mickey mouse ears.

We had a shrew visiting our house.

 This looks an awful lot like what was staying with us.

Tuesday I got traps and we set them out and every once in a while I'd see a little black blur here and there.  This little fellow didn't freak me out completely but I did want him/her gone.  I made my poor husband go on a while goose chase that night trying to catch it.

Wednesday, that critter was just a tease.  S/he managed to elude the traps that were set out.

But Thursday, well, s/he wasn't very clever and got caught.  My husband promptly booted it's little ass out the door and said to never come back.

I knew to expect this sort of thing once we decided to move out to the country.  It surprised me because it's still cold out.  Unfortunately the snakes aren't out of hibernation yet.  I know once they wake up the uninvited guests will be few and far in between.

Last fall when we were working on the homestead I found a snake in the driveway.  After doing a bit of research my husband thought it was a fox snake.  There are not too many fox snakes in Wisconsin because they are easily confused with a rattlesnakes. Since fox snake are mistaken for a "bad" snake, more often than not they are killed.  For no good reason and that makes me a bit sad.