It was a close call.....
Last night around 11 p.m., I headed downstairs to the fridge. I've been trying to lose some weight, but I needed just a tad of something to settle my stomach before bed. The fridge is down several outside stairs below the lookout cab. Put on some flip-flops, and luckily decided to strap on a headlamp because the moon had long since sank over the horizon. Got down 3 of the concrete steps before I caught a glance of Rat L parked smack dab in my path 3 steps down!
I did indeed yell "Whoa!!!" into the westward foothills...they may have even heard it in Downieville. 8^) At that point, he greeted me a pleasant evening with his tail.


Scampered back up and took a few shots from the safety of the Munchkin Veranda (catwalk). No time to search through the camera's menu to turn on the 'focus assist' light....just judged it to be about 12' below. Got lucky.

Last Monday, the 9th, I heard an all too familiar scream from one of the California ground squirrels coming from the chokecherry bushes on the north side. Neither Rose nor I saw anything, but I was suspicious. But according to the squirrels over the past few days, things were normal. I figured if it was Rat L, then they chased him off, or he got lucky and picked up a mousey snack Monday night. The whole point of this is to say that on the 9th I got out the 5 gal. paint bucket and piece of heavy wire from down below, where the fridge is, and made them handy.

It was late, but he got my adrenalin up. I knew he'd be off to pester us another day, so I rushed inside, put on my boots, and proceeded to wrangle him into the bucket just before he was ready to drop off into the south side rock outcrop. Record time!.....maybe less than a minute from the time I hit the door.

He waits patiently this morning in his 'whiteout' container, while the ground squirrels are swishing their tails nervously on the rocks. It's obvious they smell something.....or at least I hope there's not another one lurking about at the moment. I'll have to find a shady place for the bucket this afternoon......Rose won't let me put it down below with the fridge. She'll be coming up this morning to an interesting surprise. Probably won't go with me to Fir Cap this evening (about a mile away) for the release party. 8^)

Forgot about the bedtime snack....maybe I'll lose some weight after all.