Oscar's Big Morning

This is Oscar. For the most part, Oscar is a very mellow and laid back dog...unless there's a critter around that does not have her approval. (Yes, Oscar is a girl doggie. You can read about how she got her name here.) When she was a puppy, Oscar kept my mom up most of one night while desperately trying to get to a cricket under the TV armoire. Lots of whining, scratching, pacing, and barking. Not much will distract her when she's on the trail of something.

The other morning Oscar took a keen interest in the stonework around the fireplace on the main floor of our house. Then she started barking and trying to get at something behind the stonework.

Maybe it's just another stinkbug.

Or a wolf spider.

Oh dear, not a good sign at all.

No, this isn't looking like she's after a stinkbug or a wolf spider. This is looking more along the lines of something in the rodent category.

Her tail is practically vibrating.

Yep, she's absolutely convinced there's something in there. Incidentally, dachshunds are hounds and this is about the closest Oscar's ever going to get to actually treeing something so I shouldn't make too much fun of her here.

Closer inspection revealed that something along the lines of a house mouse or a deer mouse had visited our fireplace, probably very recently given Oscar's behavior. Our fireplace is essentially a box covered with faux stonework and there's a void behind the electrical outlet and between the box and the log wall. Plenty of room for a mouse (but hopefully not mice). The weather has been dropping into the 40s at night and I'm sure there are lots of critters looking for a warm place to spend the winter. We'll be setting a trap or two to discourage this behavior, followed by a long bout of caulking and filling up any voids we find with insulating foam. Mice can squeeze through holes about the size of a dime, so needless to say, we may be making a couple of trips to Lowe's this weekend.