Emily Wants You to Know the Score

Charlotte, you may want to skip this one.

Emily: 3
Central PA wild rodents: 0

It's been four hours since she got the cheeky bugger, and she still can't stop trotting about happily. This one was really asking for it though. You know, most of the mice have the sense to stay in the ceiling tiles where Emily can't get them. They're active only after 11 pm at night and they never show their face. I have to use the sticky traps on them because nothing else seems to work.

This wasn't a mouse though, it was another ground squirrel (like a very large chipmunk) and it was making all sorts of racket in the ceiling tiles while I was trying to work today. I finally took off the ceiling tile over my head and flashed a light around trying to see if that would at least scare it off because it's hard to think when you can HEAR the bugger thinning out your insulated ceiling tiles.

Then I left for my Reader's Theatre group. Apparently no sooner did I leave than the squirrel came out of the ceiling and into the main room of the basement. Emily didn't immediately catch on. It was Chris who saw him first and tried to direct Emily's attention to the squirrel. Emily thought FINALLY he was going to throw her tennis ball for her and wouldn't look and they argued back and forth until Emily caught the scent of the squirrel.

Well. After that it was just a matter of time.

I came home, Chris went off to his Reader's theatre class, and forgot to mention the incident to me in passing. I didn't know what was happening until I was sitting at my desk, typing away, and Emily came racing into my little corner, under my desk, around the chair and back out again. I started hollering at her to stop chasing the tennis ball when I heard the sound of the little claws against paper (I have references for a current project spread out on the office floor) and I immediately got out of the way.

RIP little squirrel.