I had planned to spend this morning sleeping late, enjoying the extra hour afforded me by daylight savings time. But that changed when I awoke around 8 to what sounded like the cats trying to rearrange the furniture in the living room. At first, I thought, How nice. We could stand a fresh look. And then the pace of movement intensified, the sound of claws scrabbling across our hardwood floors increased and I thought perhaps it warranted a look. If anything, they were going about the new design too quickly and the results would be harried at best. As it turned out, the cats were not re-doing the living room. Rather, they were desperately trying to capture some creature that, based on their sentry points on either side of the couch, was hidden below. Delightful. This is one of those times when it really does come in handy to have a former Iowa farm boy in your house, and mine is in Montreal.
I assumed it was a mouse, until it emerged at top speed and made a mad dash under the bookcase and I discovered that our guest was actually a baby squirrel. A little sleuthing later -- mostly done as the poor thing dashed from under thing A to under thing B, the cats in hot pursuit -- revealed that it had entered through my office window, pushing in the block of wood covering a gap left by the A/C unit. How diligent! How resourceful!
I spent the next half hour or so in a somewhat comical routine, wherein I would shut the cats in one room and try to scare said baby squirrel out from under whatever it was under, then the cats would somehow get out and show up again, sending BS back under something else. Eventually, I shut the cats in the basement. BS headed under the couch. Now what?
I tried reasoning. I told BS that I had fully removed the piece of wood from the window and if he or she would kindly extricate him or herself and head back to the office, the free world was waiting. Nothing. BS stayed under the couch. I tried jimmying the couch this way a bit, a few inches that way, but nothing sent BS out until I stood on top of the couch and walked across it. Bingo! BS went scurrying out from under the couch and back into my office. Terrific progress! And then it scurried out of my office, into the bathroom (which shares a door to my office and the kitchen.)
I met BS on the other side, trying to head him/her off in the kitchen, at which point, it dashed off and took refuge...somewhere. I think under the fridge. So I sort of pushed against the fridge a few times hoping to inspire an panicked exit. Nothing. I took things out of the fridge, putting them back heavily on the shelves. Still nothing. Then I waited.
It has now been nearly an hour and there has been no movement. I let the cats out of the basement, thinking perhaps BS had actually gone somewhere else and they would be excellent scouts. But nada. The cats have sniffed around a bit then gone about their usual business of mewling for food and licking themselves in unseemly places. Thus, I've done what any sane person would do in my position -- poured a cup of coffee, grabbed my laptop and headed back to bed to wait.