Cat on the Roof

Last night I was awaken by a loud noise. It was coming from somewhere above, the attic, or the roof maybe.

I thought it must be another rodent that got into the attic and was now caught in the mouse trap. I wasn't happy with it. I instantly started thinking of the unpleasant task of having to remove it in the morning. I was upset thinking how it was able to get into the attic in the first place. The banging and scratching sound continued, so I pictured it now desperately moving around, with the trap still attached to it. And the noise continued.

After few minutes I was fully awake, still trying to figure out where the noise is coming from. It now sounded it was coming from a different corner of the ceiling, not where the mouse trap was set up. It seemed it was near the window.

I finally got up. It was 3.55 am.

I walked over to the window, and the sound now seemed to be coming from the roof under-eave. The smashing and scratching was really loud. I decided to walk outside. As I approached the other window, I saw a cat on the roof. In the middle of the night. It was just sitting there at the very top. She ran away when she saw me. Now I understood she was probably chasing something.

Once on the porch, the thing was obviously scratching against some metal. I first thought it might have been a raccoon or opossum stuck in the grill, so I approached with caution. But, it wasn't the grill, it was the gutter downspout! Something got stuck inside! The cat must have chased it, and then it, a bird, rat, or a squirrel, tumbled down to the gutter and straight down the downspout.

The animal was somewhere in the middle. I started tapping, and it hissed at me. I was hoping it will eventually slide down if I continue tapping. Instead, it started climbing up. After few moments, it made it almost to the lower of the two elbows on the downspout, from what I could tell by touching the metal. And then it was moving less and less, until it completely stopped.

There is a screw in that area that attaches the downspout to the strap and to the wall. I thought that maybe the screw goes all the way through the cylinder, and that the thing is either stuck in that narrowing, or is now tired and is just resting on top of that screw in the middle of the opening. I decided to try to get the screw out and 'help' the animal slide all the way down.

I got the drill, and started unscrewing. It was a short screw, and once the strap was separated, the screw flew away into the grass. I turned the porch lights on (yes, all of this I was doing just under the moonlight). Searching through the grass for the screw at 4.30 in the morning.

That is when I realized how ridiculous I was.

I went back into the house and tried to go back to sleep and ignore the still occasional noise coming from just the other side of my bedroom wall. I was thinking of how I'd have to call the animal control in the morning because I don't want a dead animal sitting in the gutter for days.

I don't know what happened next.

In the morning, I poked with a stick on the lower end of the downspout and from the top, and only got few hairs (now I am pretty sure it wasn't a bird). If there was anything inside, it was still in the vertical part where I couldn't reach in. I figured, if the squirrel is still there, there is nothing inside to hold it when it dies, and it will just fall down.

But I think the thing got out.

I really hope so.