The Critter In the Mess

This is one of my most embarrassing hoarder moments.  I don’t think I’ve ever even told anyone this story about the critter.  When my kids were little, my computer was in the living room and I would sit on there for a little while every night and chat with other moms on Babycenter while the kids played.  My twins were babies and I was working full time so I was very sleep deprived and the room was overtaken with stuff.

For a couple months, as I sat at my computer, out of the corner of my eye, I would see a big fluffy thing go flying past my feet.  I never saw a furry critter so I thought that I was so sleep deprived that I must be seeing things.  We didn’t have any pets at the time. It would have to be something bigger than a mouse to have a big fluffy tail like that but then surely I would have seen an animal that big.  I’m sure that I would have known if there was a critter living in the house, even if there was stuff every where.

I saw this fluffy thing that I thought was a tail at least 5 times but I never heard anything.  I thought that if it was an animal and it was living in the piles of stuff, I would hear it rustling through the room or there would be some other clue but I never saw or heard anything.

This went on for a few months until one day I finally saw it.  I walked in the kitchen and there it was.  The critter – a chipmunk.  There was a chipmunk in my kitchen, on the counter, having lunch.  I still can’t believe it!  It wasn’t very small either.  Now that’s when you know you have a hoarding problem!