Shoutout to the raccoon who picked my chimney over the neighbor's

Had a call in Springfield last week where a homeowner heard scratching in their flue. Got up on the roof, dropped the camera, and saw two beady eyes staring back. The choice was simple: try to scare it out from the top with a long pole, or go inside and open the damper to let it find its own way down into the fireplace. I picked the pole method, thinking it was the safer bet for everyone. Let's just say that raccoon was a lot faster than I gave it credit for. It shot up out of the chimney like a furry rocket, knocked my brush off the roof, and scrambled down a tree before I could even blink. Took me twenty minutes to find my brush in the bushes. Anyone else had a wildlife encounter that went sideways on a job?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jenny1d ago

Ngl, that beats my worst critter story. I was laying vinyl plank in a basement once and kept hearing this weird rustling from a corner. Figured it was a mouse in some old boxes. Turned out to be a full possum that must have snuck in through a broken vent. It just played dead when I finally moved the stack, gave me a heart attack. The homeowner had to call animal control while I packed up my tools for the day.

fiona_reed17h ago

That possum story is nightmare fuel.