Here’s another species to add to my attic menagerie, and one I wasn’t expecting to find – the Common Shrew (Sorex araneus). I’ve found them frozen to death in my kitchen during winter before but I’ve no idea how it got into the attic.

I’ve had several encounters of the painful variety with these little beasts in the past. Being insectivores rather than herbivores, they bite. They may be tiny but every time I’ve tried to pick one up I’ve ended up with a bloody finger. I once found a very sad sight – a dead mother shrew with a horde of tiny bald, pink babies still trying to suckle her. I can’t even begin to describe how miniscule they were.