Ever since he was a puppy, my dog Kona had a very strong bladder. So when he got older, it didn’t surprise me that we could leave him alone for a long time. The day I went to work and left it for more than 12 hours, it was one of those days.
When I got home, I was greeted at the door by a rather mild-mannered dog. He looked like he might be guilty of something. Thinking that she had to leave immediately, I opened the door for her. He staggered out, walked through the enclosed area and urinated for a very short time, then went back inside within a minute.
Just as I thought, his bladder wasn’t as good as it used to be, he must have urinated somewhere in the house. I thought she could smell urine, but where. She wanted to clean it as soon as possible so there would be no stains on the carpet. I was totally wrong, thinking that he would help me find his place to pee as he lay back on the couch looking down the hall.
My house wasn’t that big, it shouldn’t take long, but when you’re looking for a damp place, you tend to use your limited sense of touch more than sight. Bare feet are necessary in these situations. I felt around what seemed to be the entire main floor and was about to head down to the basement when I saw a small creature running down the hall. Kona looked at me and then in the direction of the trail of what we both saw and then she looked at me again. “Well, what should we do about it?”
Not knowing exactly what I just saw, I stood still for a few minutes hoping to see it again. I went in the direction I saw him running now as Kona led the way. She was back in the bedroom, but wait, there was another one that ran across the hall into a bedroom and another one followed that one.
“What the hell is happening here?” I said out loud “what’s that?”
I turned towards the guest room and saw another one in the corner by the closet.
“It’s a chipmunk!” I whispered
It all made sense to me now, the way Kona was acting guilty, the short pee, her gaze down the hall. She knew what was going on and the chipmunks were probably entertaining her all day.
I called the exterminator and within 2 hours I had at least 3 small basket traps in my house. Kona would sniff out the chipmunks and the exterminator would catch them. Basically he would let a squirrel have some space and then cut off his escape route. For example, when you were behind the sofa, you pinched one side and the squirrel had to run to the other end. At the other end, you would be waiting for a cage.
The squirrel entered, lowered the hatch. As the exterminator left the house, Kona excitedly sniffed around the stove. “Looks like your dog has found a few more,” she said.
The top came off relatively easily and sure enough, there were 2 more chipmunks crawling around on the hot stove.
In all, we found 6 chipmunks inside my house that day, 2 of which might never have been found if it wasn’t for man’s best friend’s great sense of smell.