Whiff of Joy Challenge # 149

Happy Thursday! I am late in posting my Whiff of Joy card because we had an unexpected guest who literally dropped into our home.

Here is the long version of the story. Feel free to skip it and head directly to my card :)

A squirrel managed to by-pass the wire cap we have on our roof over the chimney opening and fell down our chimney. Luckily the damper was closed so he didn’t get into the house.  I was home alone when it happened and I regret to inform you, that my first instinct was not to bravely investigate further and take care of it. It was to lock myself in my craft studio and call my husband and tell him to “please come home now”. At that point, I didn’t know what was trapped in there. From the sound of the crash and the sound of claws, I figured it had to be a raccoon, a cat, a squirrel or perhaps a bear. Seriously. It was loud.

After a few minutes, it grew quiet and so I armed myself with a ruler (crafting supplies are woefully unsuited to do double duty as weapons) and ventured out. As soon as I did, the noise started up again. I retreated and waited for my hubby. By the time he got home all was quiet. He reasoned with me that at the very worst it was a cat and we moved all the furniture out of the way, closed all doors into rooms and made a clear path to the front door which we propped open. We got a box that would fit into the fireplace hoping that whatever was in  there would drop in and we got a huge blanket to throw on top of it to trap it. We armed ourselves with brooms and thick gloves and opened the damper. Nothing fell out. Okay. It had managed to get out?

Later on that day, again alone, I heard it scratching and climbing. Once hubby was home, we again tried opening the damper but this time whatever was in there started to make horrible, distressed sounds. What was it? It sounded a bit like a duck or a frog.  The kids by this time were home and my eldest decided to start to google animal sounds. Sure enough, he found a match. It was a squirrel. I realized that I had never before that moment known that squirrels actually made noise. Try as we might, we couldn’t get it out. It seemed to be balancing on the damper and refused to budge.

That night, we had to duck tape the fireplace closed but I didn’t sleep very well, especially since I kept hearing it moving and crying. The next day, we called the city, pest control, the fire department. No one could help us. We tried to get hold of the people who clean our chimney. At this point I was feeling horrible for the squirrel. He was weak, potentially injured and I was worried he would soon die in there. Finally, we called our neighbour. He always is ready to lend a hand and give advice. A few minutes later, he came armed with safety goggles, thick gloves, a small stick and a large jar. Yes, a large jar. He was going to stick his hand in, grab the squirrel and force it in the jar. Really? I wasn’t so sure he should but he was super confident. I closed all the doors to bedrooms (just in case) and retreated.

The next thing I heard, was not what I had hoped to hear but rather what I had been afraid to hear. He had managed to make the squirrel drop down but far from being injured and weakened as it had tricked us into believing, it was zipping all around our living room and then hid under our sectional sofa, What ensued was about 10 minutes of the squirrel being forced out from under the sofa which made him leap up onto our staircase bannister and upstairs (thank god those bedrooms doors were closed) and then jumping from the top of the bannister and flying through the air (we have cathedral ceilings) to land back in the living room and back under the sofa. Finally he left through the front door but not without having first jumped on me. He landed on my arm and then flew out the door. Perhaps you heard me scream? Seriously. Why do these things happen to me? My neighbour who was really extremely calm through all of this has promised he won’t hold my screaming against me but this morning when I saw him……I could tell he was still laughing at me. My children of course, upon hearing what happened, laughed until they cried and then bemoaned the fact that we didn’t take a video. Seriously?

Now, onto what your really came here for. My Card.

I used one of my favourite Henry images. So sweet. For a change, I water-colored  the image with Distress Markers and H20s.
Our challenge is to use dear Karina’ sketch:

the fabulous prize is from Bunny Zoe’s Crafts:

You can see the rest of the DT’s fabulous cards and enter the challenge ~here~

Here are product links for you:

InLinkz.com

Hugs Jeanette xxo