Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Dancing with Wolves (in Cohousing)

[Fifomonday (Fifomonday]

This Sunday morning I heard this noise coming out of my above-stove 
microwave. I thought it was the wind rattling the draft flaps until I noted: 
1) the wind wasn't blowing and 2) the noise rather than being rattles 
included scrabbling, scratching and thumps!

Mice, Rats, Bats, Squirrels, An alien lifeform?.
What to do?  Wait until it dies? Doesn't seem to fit the "green" cohousing 
ethic.  And how long and painful for the critter, and for me, listening in?  
And then a bad smell?

So I started to take out the microwave, lowered it a bit  -- creating much 
agitation from behind the microwave, glimpses of a wing and feathers. 
Memories of the Hitchcock movie "The Birds".

My neighbor came over to help -- cohousing is good that way --  one of us to 
lower the microwave, the other to hold the loaded shotgun (the alien lifeform 
scenario)
Actually to hold the towel hopefully to catch the critter in.  It got away 
and made a quick flight to batter itself against the (closed) window, 
ignoring the previously opened front and back doors.

It was soon captured in the towel -- it was a young starling -- and when 
released outside flew away vigorously.
It had to have got in past the wind/rain flaps at the outside wall, then 
traversed 14 feet of horizontal and several feet of vertical ducting to get 
to the back of the microwave.

Michael Barrett 
Liberty Village Cohousing, Libertytown, MD.
Where 14 households are "at home", another two are moving in the next two 
weeks, and two more homes are under construction at present.
Visit us at: www.libertyvillage.com  
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