Pine Marten in the cabin

Our friend and neighbor Matt Drees returns from a Canadian outpost this morning with a tale:

He was alone, sleeping in a fishing shack on an Ontario lake and heard a noise he thought was a mouse, something he'd never experienced in the well-appointed cabin. Irritated, he got up to investigate. 

About the size of a cat, the pine marten (a member of the weasel family) is a worthy adversary, Matt learned. Apparently slipping through an open slit in a sliding window, the beady-eyed creature was deep into Matt's grub stake when his excellent adventure was interrupted by a half-naked man with a six-cell flashlight.

Matt relaxing in the cabin. We didn't get a picture of the pine marten.
You can google one.

Hard to say who was the most frightened, Matt said. Using a fishing rod in the semi-darkness, Matt eventually chased the wily pine marten into the screen porch. At that point, the panicked intruder actually leaped nose-first through the lightweight screen on the porch door, astounding its pursuer.

Shaken, Matt returned to his bed, unable to do much in the way of repairs. Remarkably, he was visited twice more that night by the highly-motivated, persistent pine marten, who had learned that a light screen is no barrier to an enterprising burglar.

Matt returns to the lake in June, armed with a roll of heavy-duty window screen.