My neighbor gave us a call yesterday while we were at work and said that our dogs had been barking for an hour. This is uncommon because they are usually just sleeping all day and my neighbor was worried that something might be wrong. Since we live on the North Shore and burglaries happen occasionally, we were also worried but since we were stuck at work, we couldn't quickly go check. Thankfully, our neighbor agreed to walk over and check it out (probably with a bat or some weapon in hand) while we braced ourselves for bad news.
After about 10 minutes of waiting, we get a call and…..
There was a mongoose in the house! Buddy and Bonnie were chasing it around the house in circles and barking like crazy dogs! For those of you who don't know what a mongoose is, click here. They are kind of half squirrel half rat animals that are everywhere on St. Croix. Never would have imagined one being in my house! Our neighbor was having a laugh at the whole thing, but since he didn't have a key, all he could do was watch Buddy and Bonnie try to catch the mongoose. Since mongoose can kill huge snakes (even cobras), I figured I should go home before the mongoose turned the attack around. Plus I was also worried that my house would be completely torn apart from this. About 20 minutes later, I was home and there was no noise… no barking… At first I thought I might have gotten there too late and my pups were goners. But then they saw me and started barking :) No mongoose was found in the house. I guess it finally found its way out.
After searching for how it got in, I noticed that the dryer vent was no longer attached to the wall. We must have dislocated it while cleaning the floor. I quickly put it back together! Only in St. Croix :)
Probably going to make a set of keys for my neighbor in case something like this happens again...