blogcutter

... weather's wild there in the fall. From a mild 18 or 19 degrees C. when I first arrived, it went down below freezing by the third day, with a little bit of snow and a fierce windchill Friday evening.

I just got back from Bouchercon, a large annual convention for readers and writers of crime fiction in all its subgenres (thrillers, cozies, police procedural, noir, traditional mysteries ...), as well as crime-related nonfiction: true crime, forensics, etc. It's usually held in a U.S. city, but occasionally comes to Canada. This year's convention was held in Calgary:

https://bouchercon2026.com

The "Boucher" part, by the way, rhymes with "voucher", not with "touché", as it was named after famed mystery writer Anthony Boucher. To get into the spirit of things, the book I read en route from Ottawa to Calgary was Rocket to the Morgue, a kind of crossover mystery/SF novel which also has some rather interesting things to say about intellectual property, copyright, moral rights and so forth. While written in the early 1940s, I find it still resonates in many ways 85 years later in an age of AI, Chatbots and Large Language Models.

There were some big name authors there like Louise Penny and Kathy Reichs, although what I really enjoy about these big conventions is the chance to meet new and lesser-known authors and encounter their work.

We still got a nice bag and T-shirt at registration, but instead of the usual mix of random books that I might or might not be interested in, and might or might not have already read, we were issued 2 tickets apiece that we could redeem in the book bazaar for any two books of our choice, all of them brand new. There was a good selection too. The book bazaar was separate from the dealers' room, which had several independent booksellers (new and used and antiquarian) as well as some appropriate literarily-oriented mystery- and crime-related stuff.

I went to the new authors' breakfast, as I often do at Cons. This one was sponsored by Louise Penny and what I particularly liked about it was that not only did each author get about a minute each to hype their book, but each participating author (there were 30 of them) was introduced individually and in addition, we each got a little booklet at our table with a paragraph about each author and their book. This makes it much easier to follow up on the authors that I think sound interesting, and scout out their current and future books (once I've whittled down my TBR pile a bit and no longer have to worry about transporting them home!)

I went to some interesting panels: one on what has replaced the Cold War in espionage novels; one on paranormal elements in mysteries (which surprised me in terms of how many possibilities there were, as it's a subgenre I haven't really explored).

I also spent quite a bit of time at the "20 on the 20 spotlight" stage, where I again got to hear from individual lesser-known authors, each talking for 15-20 minutes about their work or a topic of their choice. It was a more intimate venue than the hour-long, crowded panels and author interviews. In fact, the convention space was so large and spread out that when I had planned on attending two consecutive sessions in different parts of the convention centre, I'd often arrive at the second panel room only to find the door closed and a "Session Full" sign on it. It's definitely important to pace oneself at these conferences and not count on cramming too much into one day!

I did do a few non-Con things while in Calgary. I explored their main public library and was quite impressed. I enjoyed playing with a little machine where you could push a button and it would spit out, on request, a piece of short fiction, a poem, or a comic. I got one of each: my fiction piece was called Bite The Moon, by Naomi Duska, and was a kind of magical realism piece about an encounter with God. My poem was Spirits of the Dead, by Edgar Allan Poe. My comic, really a kind of illustrated thought for the day or self-help piece, read: Whisper your worries to a stone you cradle in your palm. Then let the river swallow them. It was signed EU.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon after the conference ended, I took the C-train for 2 stops out to the Calgary Zoo. I saw a penguin couple in flagrante. I saw polar bears and brown bears and otters. I had a wonderful time walking around outside, soaking in nature and not worrying too much about crowds and masking. Then I went into the café for a maple macchiato and browsed the gift shop for a couple of postcards and a polar bear coaster, before returning to my hotel to pack up for my flight in the morning.

On September 12, I wrote about the possibility of changing the name of Trump Avenue, located in a nearby Ottawa subdivision. It's now official: the street name will definitely be changed, although we don't yet know what the new name will be. That should be finally decided some time in 2027, after consultation with residents of the street and other major stakeholders. I don't know exactly what the process will be. Meanwhile, however, one of the Trump Avenue street signs has mysteriously disappeared. Stay tuned.

Back in May, I noted that the autoload feature on my PRESTO card (used for public transit in Ottawa, Toronto and possibly some other Ontario cities and towns) was no longer working. I happened to be in Toronto at the time (less familiar territory for me) and found myself in a subway station trying to load a $20 bill into a machine which decided to swallow my money. Fortunately a helpful (human) agent was able to retrieve it for me. I later learned that this was a fairly widespread problem, down to some sort of software update or something - but it's apparently resolved now and my card has once again been reloading funds automatically according to my instructions.

Now to the bookish news. Centrepointe and Carlingwood libraries are both open again (they suffered major damage during the July 1 downpour), although both have areas that are still under reconstruction. The theatre at Centrepointe is still closed, however, and all shows for the 2026-27 season cancelled.

In my July 31 entry, I mentioned that a SF & Fantasy bookstore, Fables and Pages, was to open somewhere in Ottawa during the month of October. Sadly, it looks like that's now off. The would-be owners set up a page on Kickstarter in hopes of raising enough pledges to help them launch, but unfortunately only raised about a quarter of what they were aiming for. I don't know if they can try another angle, or if some rich angel investor might step forward, or if they'll win a lottery ... but I'm not terribly optimistic.

In happier news, the Spaniel's Tale on Wellington Street now has announced a definite date for moving into its spacious new quarters a few doors along. They'll close their current store on October 7 and re-open in their new location on October 17. Hooray!!

I live just a stone's throw from Central Park. No, not THAT Central Park. I'm talking about an Ottawa subdivision located just north and west of the corner of Baseline and Merivale Roads. Not sure how it got its name as it's not downtown and not very park-like (unless you're talking about parking lots).

Anyway, the big-shot developers who developed the area decided to give the streets and landmarks a bunch of names that evoked New York City. And while that maniacal U.S. president is busy unilaterally renaming all kinds of places that he has no business renaming, our local folks are understandably quite up-in-arms about a street name in our Central Park: Trump Avenue:

https://brilliantmaps.com/trump-ottawa/

Not everyone who dislikes Trump is in favour of changing the name of the street. Changing a street name, even a bad one, is disruptive, especially for its residents (who need to change their ID and notify anyone who matters to them) but also for those who need to find it: visitors, couriers, ambulances and more.

When the nearby town of Russell recently learned that the historical figure they had originally sought to honour was in fact a less than honourable person, they chose a rather practical alternative to a change of name. They declared that their namesake would henceforth be a DIFFERENT Russell, one more worthy of having a town named after him.

Would that be possible in the case of Trump Avenue or has Trump become a name like, say, Hitler, where pretty much everyone who once bore the name has changed it to something else? A quick search (not via Google - see my previous entry) brought me to this article from The Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/26/people-named-trump-unrelated-to-president

I rather think the name Trump Avenue will eventually be changed, though. Even if they want to keep the NYC vibe there, there are plenty of people who have a connection with both New York and Ottawa, or at least Ontario and Canada. What about Michele Landsberg, for example, who even wrote a book called "This is New York, Honey!" Or her husband, Stephen Lewis (who died recently, making him an even more logical choice for a commemorative street )? Or really any of the Lewis clan: David Lewis, he of the "corporate welfare bums" or Avi Lewis, the new leader of the NDP?

There are of course plenty of people of international renown who, while not originally from there, spent a significant amount of time in New York: for example, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Streets need not be named after people, of course. I mean, how about September Eleventh Drive? Can we expect to see buildings named Twin Towers North? Or the Empire Province Building? The Little Apple? Maybe a courtyard named Times Square North?

In many cities in Canada, and perhaps beyond, June is the main month for Pride celebrations. In the Ottawa area, the biggest events occur in late August. Sadly, I find the whole thing has become too big and too bureaucratic.

Five or six decades ago, I never could have predicted that I'd one day be saying this. After all, back then it took real courage to come out as gay, let alone trans or nonbinary or any of the other many varieties of sexual orientation and gender diversity that I've since become aware of.

I do still have a certain fondness for some of the more spontaneous, grassroots and less corporately or commercially oriented events and get-togethers like the Dyke March or the Trans March:

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/alternative-pride-events-ottawa

And I'm thrilled that it's become more or less a non-event when we get a gay or lesbian or trans or nonbinary premier, mayor, councillor, school board trustee or other public figure. Mind you, Alex Munter would have been a much better mayor than the guy who defeated him, or the two subsequent ones (one of whom came out as gay). Does anyone remember Alex's Fruit Salad parties?

I still treasure my copy of Just Married: Gay Marriage and the Expansion of Human Rights, by Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell, which the authors signed for me on September 21, 2002 and in their dedication wrote "Thank you for your support in changing the world."

Anyway, what's really frustrating is to see Capital Pride forever being derailed and disrupted by factions from WITHIN the LGBTQ+ community. Wouldn't all those marginalized subgroups be better off supporting each other and focusing on their common interests, and celebrating diversity rather than sniping at each other over their differences?

The unveiling of the monument looked at first like a noble initiative in a similar vein to Truth & Reconciliation: acknowledging the way careers were derailed, families undone, and hatred and violence perpetrated upon people who were believed, correctly or otherwise, to be gay. But ... it turned out to be a mere photo-op, a by-invitation-only event. Tone-deaf or what?

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/members-of-2slgbtq-community-floored-at-being-turned-away-from-monument-launch/ar-AA2aJTVj

I haven't really explored the international scene, although I'm well aware that there are places where it's still illegal to have any sort of less-than-traditional sex role, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. As well as others which are more progressive than us, more live-and-let-live, or more disposed to practise what they preach. Anyway, here's one article I found interesting:

https://queervibesmag.com/alternative-prides-a-return-to-activist-roots/

This weekend, I'll be sticking close to home, avoiding all the kerfuffle and road and bridge closures that these mass events bring about. Municipal election canvassers are taking advantage of our at-homeness, bringing around pamphlets promoting their candidate of choice. Fine with me. A healthy sign for democracy: I respect the candidates who make the effort, regardless of whether their platform resonates with me!

While I'm sitting out the pride events this year, I may possibly attend the Labour Day rally and subsequent picnic next weekend. We'll see.

Yesterday was re-opening day for our public library at Centrepointe, which suffered flooding in the July 1 deluge. The basement level, which housed the children's collection, remains closed, although there were a few shelves of children's books available on the main level, and a meeting room also on the main level was in use for some sort of story time or other children's programming.

I didn't stay long, but I browsed the new acquisitions and the Express Reads sections and quickly managed to find a couple of books to borrow.

The Second Editions used bookstore next door is still closed, as is the Meridian Theatre.

Meanwhile, the Carlingwood Library is still closed and no specific re-opening date has yet been announced.


There's good news on the bookstore front. Back in the day, I remember when there were all kinds of independent bookstores dotted over the Ottawa region, both little specialty shops and bigger ones covering a whole range of types of books. New books and used books too. And now, at least when it comes to new books, I'm pleased to report that little specialty independent bookshops seem tone enjoying a comeback.

Some time in October, we can look forward to Fables and Pages, specializing in the fantasy genre:

https://ottawacitizen.com/life/new-fantasy-bookstore-ottawa

If you want to support them in getting this worthwhile venture up and running, you can find them on Kickstarter.

I've visited the Romance bookstore in the Glebe and hope over the summer to get to this new Islamic one on Richmond Road:

https://lovelylabooks.com

Now if we could only once again have a shop devoted to the genres like mystery, thriller, true crime ... something akin to what Prime Crime used to be. I try to get to Sleuth of Baker Street whenever I'm in Toronto, but they're only open two weekends per month. Kingston closed their bookshop years ago and as far as I'm aware, there's nothing equivalent in Montreal either.

In further book news, I'd like to give a shout-out to this very worthwhile Canada-wide organization. It's also a registered charity, but even if you're not in a position to donate to it, the website is well worth browsing. You'll find lots of great individual and book club reading recommendations there.

https://bookclubsforinmates.com

Are we finally turning over a new leaf?

Last night I dreamed that I was going back to work after a long absence. In real life, I've actually been retired since 2009 and haven't felt the urge to go back, although I 'm a member of the Retired Members Guild of my union (PIPSC), and also of the National Association of Federal Retirees (NAFR) and the Ex Libris Association. But for those still employed in the federal public service, July 6 was the date when most workers were expected to start working in the office at least 4 days a week, as opposed to working from home. The official directive may be found here:

https://www.canada.ca/en/government/publicservice/workforce/direction-prescribed-presence-workplace.html

But back to my dream. I went back to my office (I think it was the one in Place du Portage, where I worked for 12 years of my career) and found my desk. The office was much more crowded than it had been before, although there was no one actually at my desk. On my desk was a telephone with a rapidly flashing light indicating there were messages waiting. Funny thing is, it was a 1970s-era phone with the row of little buttons and lights across the bottom. In those days, a flashing light actually meant there was a caller waiting on hold on that line. A light that was on but not flashing meant that that line was in use.

Anyhow, somehow in the dream, I knew that the flashing light must mean I had messages waiting. Only problem was, I couldn't remember the process I needed to go through to retrieve those messages! So I asked (in English) the unknown-to-me woman who was sitting nearby how to retrieve the messages. She just stared at me blankly. I asked her in French and was once again met with a blank stare.

Okay, I thought, I'll just walk around the office a bit until I find someone I know. Eventually I found one of my former bosses but she was busy talking to (interviewing?) someone. I signalled to her to indicate I needed to speak to someone but she made a shushing gesture followed by a go-away gesture indicating that she just couldn't deal with me right now. I eventually found someone else I knew but she was just visiting some former co-workers and neither she nor the ex-coworkers (whom I didn't know) could help.

So I decided that for the time being, I'd just go back and settle into my office. I took off my boots (it must have been winter, or maybe it was just raining - again!) and opened a desk drawer to get out my shoes. Naturally they weren't there: after all, what did I expect after 17 years?

I set about planning my day, or at least my morning. First order of business: go downstairs and buy a coffee.
I rummaged in my purse and wasn't sure if I had enough money there for coffee. There certainly wasn't enough to buy lunch. Time to find a bank machine. There used to be a bunch of bank machines in the complex. Those were all gone.

I did a bunch more aimless wandering around, becoming increasingly anxious and panicked. As I surfaced to the waking world, it took a few minutes to recover and realize that, well, it was actually all in my head.

Back when I was a young mum with a young child, I became aware of a feminist organization called Mothers Are Women (MAW). No, it wasn't a conspiracy of the TERFs. Rather, an overwhelming sentiment behind it was that people who go the motherhood route are not to be defined solely by that role but have a whole range of concerns and interests. Mothers, especially stay-at-home mother-homemakers, tended to feel isolated, alienated and undervalued. I wasn't part of that group but I could definitely relate to it and experienced some of it, especially during my all-too-short maternity leave and afterwards, when relying on the stay-at-homers to take care of my daughter while I worked my first shift at the office as a 9-to-5er and my second shift at home. With luck, I could sleep for part of the third shift, although never quite enough.

Originating at the University of Ottawa, a description of the organization can be found in the university archives:

https://mouvementfemmes-womensmovement.uottawa.ca/mothers-are-women

Anyway, the point I'm making in a roundabout way is that these days (and no doubt since time immemorial although back then, we didn't dare talk about it in polite company), some mothers are men and some fathers are women. Parenthood occurs in a variety of ways in a variety of social contexts.

So to all you fawthers and famthers and father figures all over the world, Happy Fathers' Day!

I'm back from Toronto, where I attended the Bony Blithe mystery convention, saw Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung in conversation at TIFF Lightbox and did a bit of a bookstore crawl too. But in this particular entry, I'm going to focus on public transit: getting there, getting back and in between: getting around Toronto.

With VIA Rail, it was a minor miracle: the train got into Toronto's Union Station only about ten or fifteen minutes late on Thursday afternoon. Getting back to Ottawa Sunday afternoon, the train was actually five to ten minutes EARLY!! And with quite a bit of recent train travel, I've moved up to the second tier, Privilege, for travel rewards. So definitely no complaints there.

Now for the intra-city transit part. Back around 2013, OC Transpo here in Ottawa started moving away from bus tickets, cash fares and paper bus passes towards plastic cards known as PRESTO passes, where you load what you need onto that one little plastic card. There were definitely some growing pains with my card malfunctioning regularly and needing to be replaced. But the card I've had since 2016 has been reliable. I've got it on autoload so when my account dips below a certain amount, more money is loaded on to the card and billed to my credit card.

What's great is that I can also use my PRESTO card in Toronto. No more fussing about with subway tokens. But as for autoload ... well, turns out there's a problem. When I scanned my card at College Station, the machine made a rude noise at me and displayed that there was only 46 cents left on my card. Annoyed but undeterred, I proceeded to the machines where you can load more money onto a card. The instructions looked fairly straightforward: put your PRESTO card here, stick your money in there ... it was kind of an impatient machine though, kept asking me if I needed more time, to which I responded in the affirmative.

Well. I inserted a $20 bill, which the machine eagerly sucked in. OK. Problem was, the display still kept insisting there was only $00.46 on my card. And there didn't seem to be any coin- or bill-return button. So I enlisted the help of one of the orange-vested TTC folks.

He suggested we try the machine next to it. I took another $20 out of my wallet and he guided me through the process. "Are you sure it's not going to just swallow my $20 again?" I asked.

He assured me it wouldn't and indeed, the process worked fine. He then guided me back to the first machine and somehow called up a log of the most recent transactions there. And managed to get the machine to regurgitate the $20 I'd inserted a few minutes earlier.

So I guess somehow the autoload doesn't work if you're in a different city? I'll have to look into that.

Anyhow, I've found the subway in Toronto to be generally much more efficient than our poor beleaguered LRT here at home. But of course, it still has its service disruptions, for ongoing construction, labour disputes, and whatever else you get in the big city. And now they've shipped their former CEO Rick Leary to Ottawa to deal with our mess here.

Before checking out of my hotel on Sunday morning, I checked the TTC site to get an idea of what to expect.
I noted that there was no subway running northbound between College and Eglinton, but the southbound trains to Union Station looked to be running normally.

Except they weren't. At the turnstiles, TTC people were redirecting everyone back upstairs to board shuttle buses. Now, the phrase "replacement buses" strikes fear into the heart of every Ottawan who regularly deals with disruptions to our LRT service. And when you've got baggage to deal with - the physical as well as the psychological kind - that doesn't bode well. After a short wait, one single bus arrived that was standing room only. Now, if you're good with math, you'll have figured out that one bus doesn't carry quite as many people as one Toronto subway train with however many cars they usually have.

Some kind soul offered me their seat. I made it to the station with plenty of time to spare, and got to relax in the Business Lounge with a glass of cold juice before it was time to board my train.

And the rest is history.

I feel like the past few weeks have been consumed by doing my duty to God, the King and my country and abiding by the Girl Guide law. Specifically: filing income tax, completing the Census and buying Girl Guide cookies, in roughly descending order of onerousness.

But today I plan to talk mainly about the Census. There are two versions: the short and the long. And this year's long census, which we got, felt very long indeed. Apparently one in four households get this version. Looking back at my old blog entries, I see we got it in 2016 too, although we got the shorter one in 2021. Sadly, my blog only starts in 2012, so I have no verifiable record of what we got in 2011. Although, if memory serves me correctly, that may have been the year the obligatory long form census was canceled by the Stephen Harper government because two or three households in the country had complained about it. It was made optional - for EVERY household, I think - and my feeling was that if only those out-there folks who WANTED everyone to notice them were responding, then it would hardly be a statistically relevant sample and I'd rather not participate. Even so, I think I recall getting periodic nagging that we hadn't yet answered all those extra questions! Then again, my memory and my understanding of statistical processes might well be faulty as I don't claim to be an expert in these matters.

So, I don't know ... seems to me we've gotten a little more than our fair share of long-form censuses (censi? censos?) over the years but I guess it's the luck of the draw.

On a more positive note, I do think it's a good idea to collect the data included on the longer census. To quote the letter they sent in the mail: "Census information is important for you and your community and is used to plan services that support employment, schools, public transportation and hospitals." The new questions about homelessness and precarious housing arrangements were particularly interesting and timely in this day and age.

So far, so good, although given the recent rash of layoff notices at Statistics Canada and the seeming disinterest of our current globe-trotting Prime Minister in his own country-people (let alone his own constituency-people), I'm rather sceptical that many of these fine plans will see the light of day. I mean, Failing to Plan may well be Planning to Fail, but Planning to Do is not necessarily Doing the Plan!

The home page for the Census assures us that completing the questionnaire is quick and easy. Yeh, right.
In an interview with CBC, the Chief Statistician estimated it would typically take about 25 minutes to fill in the long form. I'd put it at closer to an hour for us, a 2-person household. Larger families would take much longer.

The main problem for us was that we didn't know what information we would need to have close at hand in order to answer the questions. Stuff like how much we spent on electricity, water, and property taxes. It meant saving our answers and coming back after retrieving all the receipts. Before logging out, we had to set up a password and a security question (the latter never got asked), and then we had to log first into My HydroOttawa and then MyServiceOttawa to retrieve the information we needed, and then go back to the Census questionnaire to input it.

Then there were the questions that really called for some soul-searching like what's your religion and what's your sexual orientation, but given the time constraints, our souls didn't really get fully explored and the process had to be curtailed a bit.

So here are some suggestions for developers of the 2031 Census:

1) Let us know up-front if we've been assigned a short-form or a long-form Census

2) Especially with regard to the longer Census, tell us what sort of documentation we ought to assemble before we log in: housing costs, health documents, educational credentials, etc.

3) Give us more time to get our answers in. I'd say at least two weeks rather than one. We received the letter (via snail-mail, which is getting less reliable) on May 5 and were told to submit the thing by May 12. But May 12 is the actual Census Day and a number of the questions refer specifically to the state of affairs as of May 12: it's a snapshot of the Canadian population on that date. So I think we ought to get at least a week BEYOND May 12 to finalize our answers, since technically we can't really even know if our answers were accurate until that date has passed.

I hope they will indeed compile some lessons learned and take people's concerns and suggestions into account. We'll see.

It's been a few years now since we shared our house with anywhere from one to three resident cats. In those days, we were generally alerted to the presence of any mouse who dared to encroach on our living space, usually by the sound of feline paws racing up and down the hallway at around 3AM. We tried in those days to capture and humanely release the poor victim ourselves, although once in a while that didn't work and we would find a pathetic little corpse in the morning, just outside the bedroom door.

During pandemic lockdowns, we were shopping for groceries less frequently and had more food stored at home. One day, we went to get our weekly chocolate ration (we had opened the bar earlier and re-wrapped it, but it was not in a cupboard or the fridge) and discovered some distinctive tooth-marks in the remaining chocolate. So we put down a few (humane, live-catch) traps, after ensuring that any non-mouse-proof provisions were safely stored in canisters or behind closed doors of cupboards, fridges, breadboxes, etc.

We did have to evict a few mice over the next two or three weeks but eventually the rodent activity seemed to taper off. We left the traps in place but they stayed unoccupied for weeks on end, much to our relief.

Last summer, we replaced our moribund oil furnace with an electric heat pump. It's functioning well but the work involved having hydro folks and electricians and HVAC people tromping through the house and garage and back yard; the electrical panel had to be moved and upgraded ... in short, it was disruptive although ultimately worthwhile. We've also had plumbing issues to deal with - fortunately nothing urgent but with the rainy season upon us, we decided it was time to replace our elderly sump pump with a new one, plus an additional battery-powered one for back-up. Next step for the basement? Radon remediation - it looks to be borderline down there.

But back to the mice. As summer segued into fall, we became aware of new holes or gaps as the mice came in from the cold. Back to Home Hardware for mouse traps, spray foam and steel wool.

These are the type of traps that seem to be the most effective for us:

​​​​​Victor:

https://www.homedepot.ca/product/victor-live-catch-mouse-trap/1001835448

Wildcat:

https://www.homehardware.ca/en/live-catch-mouse-trap-2-pack/p/5442007

In both cases, the mouse walks the (spring-loaded) plank to get to the bait. Entry door springs shut behind'em, and Mousiekins realizes there's no exit through the back door either, except through human intervention. Well, not quite true. Mice have sharp little teeth and once captured, they gnaw away at the plank and the back door of the trap. I'm surprised they don't expire from BPA poisoning after ingesting all that plastic! The Wildcat traps are made of sturdier plastic than the Victor ones. The entry door is hinged at the bottom rather than the top, and they are one-piece with a door at the back that must be opened by a human. The Victor traps are two-piece with a removable back section.

Anyway, we distribute the traps throughout the kitchen and dining room. Usually they stay vacant during the day but in the morning when I get up, one or two are invariably occupied. We're still not sure exactly where the mice are getting in - I'm pretty sure it's somewhere along the back wall of the house, although my partner has been diligently filling cracks with spray foam and steel wool.

For a variety of reasons - practical, ethical, emotional - we don't want to resort to poisons, which in any case could give rise to a whole host of new risks. So our next plan of attack? My partner is now looking into motion-detecting cameras to locate the scene of the crime.