That stove looks like a huge version of the stove that was in a house in Japan that my folks lived in in the early 30's. Scarred into memory by the rat that died in the masonry underpinnings!
Mum said that she took that in stride - but the day a very large toad hopped out from under her dressing table and across the room to take refuge under the bed was the day that she broke down in a long crying jag. (They were in back country Japan, and the secret police were starting to keep tabs on-seriously harass foreigners, so it was a bit of a stressful newlywed experience!