Two Saanich residents were suddenly woken up at 1 a.m. Monday morning when a mink found its way into their bedroom.
Allison Hornick and her husband were sleeping when she was woken by a thump on the nightstand. She woke her husband, who said it must be a bird who found their way in.
“I heard this large crash on my nightstand so it woke me up immediately,” Hornick said. “I kind of saw a dark shadow, so I leaped over onto the other side of the bed and woke my husband up.”
They left their bedroom and closed the door, hoping it would leave by morning. When they woke, they peaked in and saw what they thought was an otter.
“We looked all over the place and couldn’t find him, then maybe thought ‘oh maybe he’s under the bed’,” Hornick said. They had to take the bed apart, then when they looked under, “this little face was looking out, and my husband said it’s pretty cute. We weren’t sure what it was, so I got down there then after about an hour we got a picture of him.
“I sent that picture to my mom, who’s quite familiar with animals and she thought it might be an otter.”
They phoned Saanich animal control to come help, who said they would be there in a couple of hours.
“He basically barricaded off the entrance down the hall so he couldn’t get out of the bedroom,” Hornick said. “He got a broom and he got in there and eventually the little guy headed out but it was quite the harrowing story really.”
Hornick said she's happy the mink got out safe, and she'll be looking to install bug screens on her windows to prevent this from happening again.