Hubby-Eric and I did some much-needed pruning around the house today (Sunday), clearing back the blackberry and ivy that had encroached on the house. To our surprise, and worry, one of the vents into the crawlspace was, once again, wide open. We had heard an animal trying to dig into it in the past, and now it was clear that an animal had gotten in. Hubby-Eric placed a whole bunch of paving stones over the opening to block it off so the animal couldn't return.
Only problem: It hadn't left.
Around 11:30 I heard the scratching and gnawing sounds of an animal apparently trying to get into the house. Because it sounded like wood, I got up and went into the living room to listen more closely. My worst fear was realized. It was under the house trying to get out. I had no idea what kind of animal it was, but I didn't want it tearing our floor apart trying to escape, so I grabbed a flashlight, threw on some clothes, and went to pull back the paving stones.
I did so with great care, and I jumped back as I pulled the last stone out of the way in case the animal decided to attack me. It didn't. I shone the flashlight into the hole and saw a paw. Or a claw. Or whatever you want to call it... but it very clearly belonged to some kind of mole. Shining the light around some more, I saw it belonged to a very large mole-type animal. And there wasn't a chance in heck it was going to come out while I was standing there. I walked a few feet away and turned off the flashlight, but it wasn't fooled. So I eventually came back into the house, rather wound up by now, and here I am, blogging about the d!%^#$@%$^@ed thing.
Update: I did a little web research, since I couldn't sleep, and discovered that my mystery animal is, in fact, not a mole. It's an opossum. I claim confusion cuz I've never seen a live one before. To make a long story even longer, I found the National Opossum Society and the Opossum Society of the United States websites, and both of them agree that an opossum is a pretty harmless animal, beneficial to the environment in general, and not much of a pest. I suppose there are worse things that could be living in our crawl space. In any case, both sites recommend finding out if the possum has left, then sealing up the opening behind it. Only problem is that you must first make sure the possum has no young, and I'm not seeing any good advice on how to determine that. I'll have to figure that problem out tomorrow.
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