Sounds in my basement
 

Something in my basement is driving Roxy wild. Yesterday, she was barking like crazy & I thought - boy she's loud, but I thought she was clear in the living room looking out the front window barking. But when I got up she was standing outside my basement door barking.

I opened the door - didn't see anything or hear anything. Bubba & my Siamese cat could care less.

Now today Roxy has been in front of the door almost all day whining & even pawing at the base of the door. I thought for a second I heard something - but the furnace was running too. I even thought I heard a meow yesterday & today - but it could have been Roxy making one of her strange whiny noises. I did go downstairs walked around couldn't see or hear anything. I even took Roxy down & let her walk around a bit.

I'm not sure what to do. The only thing I could think of was to put out some peanut butter and see if anything came & ate it :rolleyes: - What other ideas do you have??

Several years ago, some squirrel got in my basement -- I have no idea how! Roxy went nuts then - but I even saw the squirrel paws come out from under the basement door :eek: -- That time I tried opening the basement door and trying to force a path from the door thru the hall & dining room into the kitchen & propped open the back door. The squirrel got as far as the hall & got scared & ran back downstairs. I rented a cage to catch an animal in, got him caught & talked this guy into dispossing of the squirrel. But this guy just set him free in my front yard :rolleyes: --- Well, you guessed it! The squirrel got back in my house!! :eek: I had to go thru everything all over again!! The next time though the squirrel was taken to a big park about 2 miles away

Still to this day, I do not know how the squirrel got in - the only thing I can think of was thru the chimney, but I don't know how he got out of that in the basement - I do not have a fireplace.

I haven't had mice in years, so I don't think it's just mice - and I think my cat would notice them :confused:

HELP!!!!!

Yikes!! Maybe it is a stray mouse?? Hope you can figure it out.

Maybe the squirrel finally found its way home?LOL Just kidding.....do you think possibly its the sound of the furnace kicking on that scaring Roxy? The only way i could think of a animal getting in my basement would be thru the laundry vent? Do you have your dryer downstairs? :confused:

I hope it's not a MOOSE.. check this out:Moose crashes into basement bedroom

Ok, all joking aside... (not a joke for those poor people who got a baby moose in their basement yesterday, though. LOL! :eek:).....

maybe a humane trap to see what you catch in it? (of course keeping cats & dogs out while the trap is in there goes without saying...:) )

A body? *cringe*

I'm just kidding! It's amazing the sounds they can pick up that we can't hear....my suggestion would be to put a trap down there for a couple of days.

I did think maybe it was the furnace - but it's like she can smell something or knows something! She is one smart girl & she is the watch dog! :aimeeyork She has excellent ears!

Yes, my dryer is downstairs - had not thought of that & the vent

Is there a carbon monoxide detector down there? Maybe she smells gas? Make sure theres a screen on the vent shoot on the outside of the house so animals cant get thru there and make sure its free from the snow...so the gas doesnt back up .

Is it a full basement? Do you have a crawl space outside that a cat could have gotten into?

:eek::eek: Thank goodness, I do not believe we have moose in Iowa!

I hate to spend the money for the trap - it was not cheap to rent the last time - at least then I KNEW for sure there was something to catch.

I live in a 115 yr old house & the only way downstairs is to open the door & I usually do not leave it open when I go down, because it opens up into the hallway & blocks the hall to a main floor bedroom. So the dogs have never been down there except once or twice for a tornado warning & Roxy when I carried her down today. The cat occasionally goes down there if the door is open long enough - but trust me, it's too cold down there right now for my heat-seeking cat to want to go down. so if I go get a trap, they won't have access to it

Oh, good thinking! I don't think there is a screen on the vent - but really I don't know - it's on the far side of the house & we did just get 5-plus inches of snow last night & it's blowing & drifting -- oh, fun I get to go trapse through the snow :rolleyes:

I pray it's not a gas leak issue. I don't smell anything. And I need to make sure that the carbon monoxide detector is still working - I can't remeber if they have a tester on them like a smoke detector :confused:

Nope it's not a full basement - there is a crawl space, but there is no opening outside that I know of. I thought about taking down the little door that blocks the crawl space - but I'm a bit chicken :rolleyes: -- Roxy has me so spooked, I think there's something that would get me. :rolleyes:

But, apparently she heard something else - because she has given up her guarding of the door & is now in the living room barking out the front window - probably at someone shoveling snow!

Better not be a body!

That's really odd. :confused: I have no ideas or advice for you... but I hope you find out what it is that's driving her nuts soon.

That is creepy indeed! A mouse got into my dryer from the outside once...then chewed it's way through the lint filter and ended up in the actual dryer part where the clothes are. I about freaked when I opened the dryer to find this loopy mouse sitting there....all goofy from being on the fluff cycle. Have you done clothes or opened your dryer door lately? Try turning on your dryer and see if there's any scratchy noise coming from it. If so, leave it go for a while before opening it.

Other than that, I just don't know what it could be. I would think Roxy is used to the normal sounds in your house and this is a new sound she is picking up. I am anxious to hear if you get it figured out! In our city, we can get live animal traps from the animal control...maybe you could check into that. We have to give them back once the animal is caught, but it's sure cheaper than buying one.

Good luck...keep us updated!

Maybe her favorite treat or toy is in there, and she's barking for it?

animals like to find warm places in the winter.

I would put the cages out just in case there is something down there. That would freak me out.

I just checked the peanut butter - it's untouched. I decided not to tramp thru the snow - guess we got 7 inches - I'll wait until tomorrow when it is warmer & not so windy

Start out cheap and work your way back to the traps. Take a few crackers and for 1 night leave them in a few places. Count how many you put down and see if the same amount is there in the morning actually you may want to leave them out for a whole day. See if any are missing. That will confirm if something is there. It is fairly common for mice to look for dry warmer places in the winter. If the pup is going nuts, there definately was something there. Also, look behind appliances (washer dryer hotwater heaters or anything else with a flashlight to see if you see droppings, not only will it confirm the if but the how big..... :eek:

One little note. Maybe she is remembering when the squirrel was there. My Sparkle is a light addict and the lazer no longer works, hasnt for months but she saw it and went CRAZY....hey its an idea.....

My son had a finished bedroom in our basement a few years ago and came upstairs one morning and said, "mom, there was something in my bedroom last night with glowing red eyes". Now my son is a very laid back and calm person and said this with such underemphasis...I asked him if he was sure it wasn't a dream? He didn't think so, and just went on about his business. The next night, he came upstairs and said, "mom, dad..that thing with the glowing eyes is in my room again". We went down there and here is this little baby possum hissing at us! My husband swiped at with a broom and scared it into a part of the basement we couldn't get to.

I got a live animal trap and bated it with apple/peanut butter and caught it. Problem was, this went on for three nights..we caught three baby possums. A few days after we caught all these babies, we found the momma possum dead under our front porch. We assumed they were just foraging and didn't know quite what to do since their momma died.

Sorry this was a long story...I always thought it was so funny how my son reacted. The live animal trap worked well, and we just turned the babies out in the woods (I wasn't about to try to raise baby possums!) From then on we called the basement "Ben's Possum Pit"..hehe

Here's a pic of the trap...you can get it at Lowe's or Home Depot:

My girl does it alot....but family says she is seeing ghosts.....lol.....needless to say.....I could never see what she is barking at neither does my boy furbaby......

oh Tiffany, thanks for sharing that story! Boy that possum looks pretty big for being a baby - I know they get huge though. I'd be scared if red glowing eyes were looking at me too! :eek:

We have a daylight basement...meaning it is underground on three sides and opens to outside on ones side. We have two sets of french doors down there...as well as our laundry room, extra bedroom, game rooms, storage, etc. We have no door leading down to it...just an open stairwell, since it is part of our living space (heated, cooled, finished, etc).

Sometimes, Mojo and Lily will stand at the top of the stairs...looking down and whining or barking. We never had problems with mice...... but when we had our pest control people out for our yearly inspection...they found signs of a mouse :eek: So, I am thinking that is what it was!!!

Whatever it was....they most have taken care of the problem because Mojo and LG don't do that anymore! Whew!

So.....I hope it is just a mice that can easily be taken care of!

There is definitely something living in my basement!
 

There is definitely something living in my basement! Earlier today Roxy was again whining in front of the basement door. I could hear kind of this flapping repetitive noise. The furnace was running - and I was pretty sure it wasn't a flapping noise. I thought maybe it's a bird - but it was a pretty big noise, can't imagine it's just a bird.

Roxy has been camped in front of the door most of the day & I just went & opened the door - half scared it would be standing at the top of the stairs - but I had my brave yorkies & almost 17 yr old Siamese cat to protect (well, I'm hoping whatever it is wouldn't lunge at them :confused:)

As soon as I opened the door I heard that same flapping type noise & as I turned on the light I heard something loud scamper across the basement :eek: It sounded like a very good size - it is not some little mice

It seems the last time I had the squirrel in my basement, animal control told me they did not lend out cages & that's why I had to rent one. But I will be calling them here shortly & if I can't get one from them I will go to the rental place in the morning - I scared of what I'm going to catch down there :eek:

But whatever it is - is not interested in the peanut butter - it's untouched. I guess I should try the crackers or maybe dog or cat food - any other ideas??

Eek! I am no good with those kind of things. I can't say I'd be so calm if there were red glowing eyes in my bedroom, 3 nights in a row!

That's so cool that Roxy is sharp enough to know there is something down there. Let us know how you take care of it! :D

Could it be a bat? I wasn't born yet, but in our old house when my brother was a baby there were bats...my mom is still terrified of bats because of this. :D

Well, now that you know there is something down there dont let your pets down there. You never know about Rabies or other diseases animals carry.
Bird food is good bate but if you dont have something to catch it, dont feed it, that will keep its energy up and until you get a cage you want that thing to be calm and listless. The bad part of that is that it will look and look until it finds food. Most important , you need to find out how these things are getting in your house or it will keep happening. You can find the no kill trap (called Have-a-Heart traps) at Tractor supply, Home depot, lowes, places like that. They are really not that expensive and they can be useful for future use to own them instead of rent. You can catch squirrels, fox, SKUNKS, opposums, lots of things that can be bad to have in your yard with your little pup or kitty if it goes outside. If you catch a skunk, just cover trap with blanket and they wont spray.

ANYWAY, good luck and keep up updated.

Bats! Yepper! It sounds like a bat!!!

BTW - did you know it's illegal in Iowa to kill a bat? If it truly is the case you will have to call an exterminator. Or get a tennis racket. (FYI: We used a tennis racket and THEN found out it was illegal). I'm sure we just "stunned" it with the racket. ;)

Oh...don't kill the bat. They are actually not harmful except for the fact that they carry rabies. Maybe just get someone to trap it and release it instead of killing it. I used to catch fallen bats with box and hands (gloves on) coz I didn't know they carried rabies back then. Their faces aren't that ugly really. They look pretty cute.