As I line-up the key with the door knob key-hole, I hear a drop of an object sound, a scurry/running sound, then a scraping sound coming from inside the house.  It is the end of the day, and still daylight, but the sound sends a slight fear through me.

Carefully turning the key to open the door,  the grocery bags in my left hand quickly drop to the tile floor as the noise is now louder and faster than before, as if someone is trying to come up the stairs from the basement into the kitchen. Now it is a loud, anxious clawing sound on the basement door confirming the fact that I am not alone in the house.  We have no pets, and our elderly neighbor never makes a sound, so who is in the house?

I run into the living room to get the phone, and dial 911.  Deciding that staying in the house with whomever is in the basement might not be a good idea, I run with the cordless phone through the kitchen, and outside to my car.  The line is not disconnected, since the car is next to the house in the gravel driveway, so I am able to talk to the 911 operator while in the safety of my car.

Not knowing who or what is in my home, they send the police to investigate.  Remaining in the car,  I call my father-in-law’s house to tell them what is happening since they live only 20 minutes away, and can come get me if something strange happens. The next call is to my husband, to let him know what is going on.

Two policemen arrive within 6 minutes, and ask me to explain what happened.  I re-tell the story, and they decide that one will enter the house at the front door (we rarely use that entrance), and the other policeman will enter from the back of the house.  Since the back door is open, I give my keys to the policeman to unlock and open the front door while instructed to remain where I am standing off to the right a behind the policeman entering the house from the back entrance where I had recently gone in.

As we enter the house the policeman has his firearm in-hand, and enters the kitchen with it forward, and then stops.  He hears the fevorous clawing/scrapping sounds coming from the basement door that is a few feet in-front of us.  I apologize for the grocery bags on the floor, mentioning I was afraid to put the groceries away since someone else  appeared to be in the house.

The other policeman enters the kitchen via the entrance from the dining room, and we decide to open the door to the basement.  They instruct me to go into the dining room, and I do, remaining within eye’s view of the basement door.  When the door opens, the uninvited intruder is startled, and runs lightning fast through the kitchen, dining room, living room, then back into the basement.  It is like a flash of fur, running and jumping through the house.  Thankfully not a person, the intruder is a very frightened, fast squirrel.

As the policeman places his weapon into its holster, he asks if we have ever had any rodent issues before.  I explain no, that I have only lived her a few months, but there have been no issues.  He suggests calling a animal capture service, as there is no way they will be able to get the crazed animal into a trap (even if they had one).

The animal capture service that I call arrives within 40 minutes;  by this time the next-door neighbor and I are talking in the dining room about the entire thing.  She and I stand at the ready armed with tennis rackets in-case this fast squirrel flashes into the room.  We are instructed to guide it into the trap that the rescue guy has handy. It takes a few rushes of squirrel jumping and running through the house to finally get it into his net, then transfers to his cage-trap.

The squirrel is going to be relocated 25 miles away, as apparently if the release distance is too close they will return.

The entire house is now ‘dirty’ even-though it does not look any different. Other than the basement door that truly was being clawed at and has numerous chunks out of it with tiny, long claw marks up the entire right portion, the house looks the same. I set to cleaning everything with Lysol and soap and water paper towels to have it less ‘yucky’ while my neighbor laughs at the entire thing. She has lived in the house for over 30 years, and this is a first for her.