uninvited guest

[the_siobhan]

I have this bad habit of sleeping through my alarm clock. It sounds like a garbage truck backing up, yet I can wake up some days, look at the time, and I've managed to sleep through two hours of relentless beeping next to my ear.

This morning it was going off and as usual I was sleeping right through it. Then I heard a high-pitched hiss come from somewhere in the basement and suddenly I was wide awake and listening intently. It sounded like a cat hissing. I didn't hear it again.

I finally decided it was either a dream or a couple of the neighbourhood cats had decided to have a standoff right outside the bedroom window. I got up, showered, dressed and started farting around in the kitchen. I was standing at the counter when I heard a thumping noise and the scittering of claws. I spun around and just caught a shadow in the corner of my eye. The shadow looked like it crossing the hallway between the living room and the door to the basement. I didn't get a good enough look at it to tell which direction it was going. I imagined the thumping sounded like something a little heavier than a cat.

I spent the next 40 minutes creeping around my house and looking under things. Dead silence. No sign of anything out of the ordinary.

I finally convinced myself I had imagined the whole thing and went back into the kitchen. I was doing the dishes when I heard something falling over in the basement.

Another 40 minutes of creeping around. This time my mission included suddenly grabbing random articles of furniture and flinging them aside, yelling "Aha!" Still nothing.

I am now completely convinced that it wasn't a dream or my imagination. I was late for work today. I have no idea what the hell I'm going to find when I get home.

Comments

[shillolo.livejournal.com]

This time my mission included suddenly grabbing random articles of furniture and flinging them aside, yelling "Aha!" Still nothing.

Awesome!

Sounds like a day-in-the-life of me! ('cept often I also have to sit around with my eyes shut and count, and I usually find one of two kids)

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

If I find children in my basement, I'm going to be really freaked out.

[mr-sharkey.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest beating nooks and crannies with a broom - lighter then furniture, and will still flush a critter.


M.

[mr-sharkey.livejournal.com]

Btw, check the undersides of things like sofas - critters like to burrow up into them and nest.


M.

[sola.livejournal.com]

An opossum, maybe?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I was thinking a raccoon.

[siani-hedgehog.livejournal.com]

i'd go for that one, too...
when looking for raccoons, look up. and the fuckers move really fast.

[caspervonb.livejournal.com]

Really, trust me on this one.

Raccoons smell terrible.

If there was one in your house for more than
half an hour, you would know.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Ha. You would know. And as Colleen pointed out, they tend to be less likely to run away.

Probably a cat. It sounded heavier, but it might have been jumping off of something.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

See, when I' have problems like this of strange things in the house, I grab my boom stick and creep around the house. Funny thing is you and Kitiara are having the same problems (http://kitiara.livejournal.com/1942450.html?nc=9).

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Entry protected, alas.

[montieth.livejournal.com]

Doh, Forget, she locked it down some. She was woken up by cats walking on boards outside her bedroom window (2x4s stored outside). As she said, she was creeping around the house naked with her glock wondering what had made the noises that woke her.

[mr-sharkey.livejournal.com]

On the plus side, you just found a great new alarm clock!


M.

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

An unfamiliar footstep over my head will wake me up out of a dead sleep. Amazing the skills a traumatic childhood can bestow upon you.

[individuation.livejournal.com]

ACK! Can you call animal control or something like that? Man, and I was freaked out when I saw a centipede that disappeared.

[zero-gravity.livejournal.com]

my writing freind Regan showed up to the group last night with legs covered in tar. She'd caught SEVEN raccoons attempting a break in through the roof. Two adults and five babies. They were digging in through the roof. She chased them off. It sounds more likely to be a cat though no? Raccoons don't seem to be very shy.
other guesses: mongoose, monkey, small child, demon.

you could sprinkle down some flour downstairs .. put out a tin of cat food.. see if anything waddles its way to take a sniff.

Very curious. Do let us know :D

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

We haven't heard anything from it since. All was quiet last night.

So it either went out the way it came, or it got into our neighbour's house through the walls upstairs and is now their problem.