WHY WITNESSES CAN'T BE TRUSTED

A few evenings ago as I was at my computer, my peripheral vision caught movement on the floor, running quickly along the baseboard.  I thought it was a very large mouse.  Later, I saw a similar or the same creature walk into the dining room from the room beyond and saunter under the dining room table into the kitchen.  By the time I could get up to look, it had gone, I thought, into my studio.  I shut the door so it would be trapped in there and put out a 'mouse hotel', baited.  The next day I heard paper crumbling and as I opened the door, I saw the same grayish critter with a thin tail run behind the chest.

I had to leave for two days so I entered the room and caught him running behind a large cabinet.  This time he looked to be about five inches long, round tummy (possibly a couple of inches in diameter) and decided he was too big to be a mouse and rather small to be a rat, probably was.a vole.

When a got back after the weekend, dirt had been scattered out of most of the flower pots on the sills on three sides of the room.  Dirt and pebbles were everywhere and there were holes in many of the pots.  The rodent had not tried to get into the kitchen where there might have been the usual rodent feast with a little effort.

Blessings on Mr. Google, after I bought some D-Con and a larger ultrasonic box guaranteed to give the critter a headache, all the plants were carried out of the room.  By now, the critter should have been hungry and thirsty.  We opened the back door and tried to flush him out but he wouldn't go, instead ripping by and hiding behind furniture.  Assuming he was sealing his own fate, after vacuuming up all the dirt that had been scattered and wiping up the sills, I stood at the glass in the door and saw him.  I had been convinced he was a vole but, there in front of me (I even got binoculars to make sure of what I was seeing, was a chipmunk!. How he got turned into a striped thing is beyond me.  Could there be a second critter?  Did the first escape?  Don't ever ask me to be a witness at a court hearing.  I am not to be trusted!. 

I maintain my firm rule: Iif you don't pay rent, you can't live here.