Unwanted houseguest

I got home last night and went down into our basement to search for a box of old pots and pans that I am giving to a friend at work for her son's new apartment. Our basement isn't really a basement, it's really a cellar. Our house is 98 years old, and while it was totally renovated a couple of years ago, at its core it is still a very old house. No where is this more evident than in our basement/cellar. The walls are stonework, the ceiling is just under 6 ft, there are great wooden beams holding our house up, and you can see the remnants of the original insulation - which was newspaper! I don't like our cellar. It's dark and creaky and always a little bit damp. The only reason I go down there is to empty the cats litter boxes, or to look for stuff, like boxes of pots and pans.

So I am looking around for the box, and I notice in one corner there is all this STUFF on the floor. Little bits of paper, a dunkin donuts coffee cup and some dirt. I'm like: what is all this crap??? So I am looking around at it and then I look up the stone wall and see a HOLE at the top of the wall!!! A HOLE - like a 6-8 inch wide round hole in our wall!!!!

So I give a little (or not so little) yelp and run upstairs because whatever made the hole could be down there RIGHT NOW! And I call the pest control guy right away to tell them to come over. (they can't come until tomorrow - Weds!!) and then I sit and wait for C to get home so HE can go into the cellar and see the hole.

We think it is a groundhog. I am hoping it is a groundhog instead of something like a big rat, or a python or something. I am not good with stuff like this. I hate when nature comes in my house. I like to watch groundhogs play outside. I do NOT like them as houseguests. There is also the whole "hole in our basement wall" issue that we will have to deal with now. I swear, we seem to throw money at this house.

SOOOO... stay tuned and I will post more tomorrow about the identity of our mystery houseguest.



-The Good Stepwitch