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squirrels at home

Ever since he was a puppy, my Kona dog had a very strong bladder. So when he grew up, it didn’t surprise me that we were able to leave him alone for a long time. The day I went to work and left it for over 12 hours was one of those days.

When I got home, I was greeted at the door by a somewhat placid dog. He seemed like he might be guilty of something. Thinking I had to get out immediately, I opened the door for her. He staggered out, walked through the enclosed area and urinated for a very short time, then came back in a minute.

Just as I thought, his bladder wasn’t as good as it used to be, he must have peed somewhere in the house. I thought she could smell urine, but where. She wanted to clean it as soon as possible so there would be no stains on the carpet. I was totally wrong, thinking he would help me find his pee spot while he lay on the couch facing the hallway.

My house wasn’t that big, it shouldn’t take long, but when you’re looking for a wet spot, you tend to use your limited sense of touch more than your eyesight. Bare feet are necessary in these situations. I felt around what seemed to be the entire main floor and was about to head down to the basement when I saw a small creature running down the hallway. Kona looked at me and then in the direction of the trail we both saw and then she looked at me again. “Well, what should we do about it?”

Not knowing exactly what I just saw, I stood motionless for a few minutes hoping to see it again. I went in the direction I saw him running now as Kona led the way. She was back in the bedroom, but wait, there was another one who ran across the hall into a bedroom and another one followed that one.

“What the hell is happening here?” I said out loud “What is that?”

I turned back to the guest room and saw another one in the corner by the closet.

“It’s a chipmunk!” I whispered

It all made sense to me now, the way Kona acted guilty, the short pee, the stare down the hall. She knew what was going on and the chipmunks were probably keeping her entertained all day.

I called the exterminator and within 2 hours I had at least 3 small basket traps in my house. Kona would sniff out the chipmunks and the exterminator would catch them. Basically he would let a squirrel have some space and then cut off their escape route. For example, when one was behind the sofa, he pinched one side and the squirrel had to run to the other end. At the other end, a cage would be waiting.

The squirrel came in, lowered the trapdoor. As the exterminator left the house, Kona sniffed excitedly around the stove. “Looks like your dog has found a few more,” she said.

The top came off relatively easily and sure enough there were 2 more chipmunks crawling on the hot stove.

In all, we found 6 chipmunks inside my house that day, 2 might never have been found if not for man’s best friend’s keen sense of smell.

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