The Survivor.

When we got up this morning we kept hearing strange noises coming from the fireplace. We have a wood stove with a chimney pipe that attaches to the wall. It sounded like a small animal was caught inside the pipe just above the flume (which was closed, thank goodness!).

After some discussion we decided the poor animal would likely die slowly of starvation and end up stinking up the house, so we decided the best thing to do would be to light a fire and get it over with quickly. While I was lighting the fire (I'm the fire master in the house) I kept picturing a poor sweet little birdie and I almost couldn't do it! To make it easier for me, Jason said, "What if it's a bat! Or a rabid vampiric rat!!! *yikes* So the fire got lit and we closed the door and opened the flume.

After about 10 minutes I couldn't see the glowing from the fire anymore so I figured my fire had gone out (it's my first fire this season...gimme a break!). Not even thinking, I walked over and opened the door to the fireplace and, sure enough it was completely black inside! Charred, half-burned pieces of wood...and then...AHHHHH...a little black bird flew out at me! OH MY GOSH! I SCREAMED so loud!

I wish we had gotten it on video because it definitely would have won us $100,000 on AFV! Jason and I both leaped into action...actually our first instincts were to flee the room and close the door *LOL* leaving poor, defenseless little Corbin in the living room with the crazy-scared bird! Finally we both got our bearings and opened the front door and tried chasing it out. When it perched on our mantel with all of our family pictures a light bulb went off and I realized I should be snapping pictures for my blog *HAHA* but I was too slow! By the time I got to my camera the bird had flown the coop!

Jason, the germ-a-phobe that he is, ran around the room with the Lysol spray, spraying every surface the bird touched *LOL*

Good thing it wasn't a rabid vampiric rat!

(P.S. I didn't take that picture, found it online for reference.)