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This past weekend we went to Spokane to see my family. My cousin got married Saturday night, so it was kind of a family reunion. We had a good time and saw a lot of people we hadn't seen in 4-5 years.

When we returned home Sunday evening I noticed that the bottom seal on the garage door was "falling apart." This shot was taken standing underneath it, pointed up. We were a little surprised that our new house was falling apart already. Upon closer examination we realized that it had been chewed apart. So, we started looking around and didn't see anything...except for some more messes.

Here is the extra vinyl flooring rolls that got chewed. And below is the left-over Sheetrock boards that are pretty holy now!

I also found the extra carpet padding in a big mess.

This is the one that makes me really mad. It tried to get into the house and chewed the door seal, so that is going to have to be replaced soon.

So, last night I went out twice, once at dusk and once at 10:45 or so and opened the garage door and sat in the car for 10 minutes while watching for something to come out. I never saw anything. At this point we were assuming that whatever it was ran out when we opened the garage door the first time. Since we had backed in, we wouldn't have seen it run out.

Today Debbie was over and I decided to show her the damage. While we were at the back of the garage I looked down and saw a black nose, light fur around the nose and an eye sticking out from under some boards/carpet padding. I thought it was a raccoon at first...but it turned out it was a rock chuck. So, I grabbed the camera and Debbie (who is much more brave than me) grabbed the broom and started tapping around it to try to get it to move. Here is the rest of the story:

You will notice it at the end of the house, then it runs around the corner, then under the BBQ and sits at the steps a minute then continues on around the end of the house.

I'm just glad the thing is finally out! Now I'm not so afraid to go in the garage anymore!