"what was that!" my mind snapped to attention from a peaceful slumber. I quickly did a body count. Hubby still in bed, kids not up the noise was to quiet to be them, and I can still hear snoring coming from their room. I lay still and quiet trying to determine if it was a dream that woke me. No! There! Look! a small shadow flits under my bedroom door and quiet scampering noise startles me into denial. "I must be seeing things, it's nothing, probably just the furnace making that noise and I'm blind without my glasses, must be my imagination. Go back to sleep." But I can't sleep. Hmmm, well I guess I could get up and check my email. Now's a perfect time for uninterrupted blog surfing. As I sit and read, suddenly there is a scratching noise coming from a storage box right beside me! Ack! I don't want to look! What will I do if I see a mouse? This sounds way bigger than any mouse I've incountered, what do I do? what do I do? The noise must have been wondering the same thing because when I finally turned my head to look at the noise it looked right back at me! A little white face with tiny round ears peaked out at me, squeaked at my stricken face and dashed back into hiding. That was no mouse! What do I do? What do I do? This is justification for a hubby wake up call!

To make a long story longer...
We had an ermine in our house today. We chased it around and we're really not sure where it ended up. Could still be inside, or maybe if found a mysterious hole to slither out of. We set a live mouse trap for it, but are not very hopeful that it will be caught. We don't really want it dead because ermines (we googled this morning) eat mice and voles and many other pests and can be a good thing to have around. However, they also have musk glands and can make a stink if they are frightened, so I don't really want one in the house. Our little visitor was really very cute and, aside from the noise this morning, caused very little havok. Honestly, I was relieved when it wasn't a mouse peering out at me, but I'm also a bit disconcerted. I certainly don't want a weasel family taking over my house, I have enough trouble just cleaning up after my own little rug rats! Oh well, I guess we'll just keep our eyes and ears peeled and go on with life. What is life, after all, without all these interesting misadventures.