I was working in my home office at the front of the house early yesterday morning. The dogs had been taken out and fed and I was being quite productive already. All of a sudden I heard a little noise and assumed that the cat had come upstairs. Then Gus, our Pom-with-an-attitude, started growling. None of these occurrences were in any way different from any other day.
Then the growling started again followed by his incessant, high-pitched barking and Sadie, our old lab who never does anything but eat and sleep, started growling and barking as well. I ran out to shush them both as the kids were still sleeping and heard another bit of scurrying in the living room. It had to be the cat, of course. I closed the pocket door between the kitchen and hallway and started heading back to my office to continue working when a small movement caught my eye. I turned around quickly to see a tan-coloured squirrel scurrying across the hardwood floors, past the grand piano in the living room (I would have lost it if it had clawed its way up that) and running toward the sofa.
Several thoughts flashed through my head all at once. How had a squirrel come into our house and how was I going to get rid of it on my own? My husband was already at work and the kids were still fast asleep. I quickly opened the sliding door to the back pool area, thinking that I would shoo the squirrel toward the door and be done with it. But no, every time I had it running toward the open door, it would make a last minute bee line for the couch and hide. I got the broom from the kitchen and started again, gently poking and prodding, even pleading with it. But no. Out it came, back it went.
I decided to wake the sleeping bear, our oldest son. He got up immediately and padded groggily out of his room, half conscious and barely functioning as he watched me running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Time to call in the next child. I got our daughter to come out and help. By this time, our son was waking up and the two of them started tag-teaming and shooing. The scene was not unlike National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation where the squirrel leapt from the tree in the living room of the infamous Griswold family and chaos ensued! Every time I got the squirrel out from behind the couch, it would run toward the kids, dodge them by leaping onto the other couch or scaling the fireplace. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall and watched this comedy routine! We started laughing as the squirrel ran over my son's foot and my daughter started screaming bloody murder.
FINALLY we got the squirrel out the sliding door. Incredibly it ran straight for the pool and jumped right in. I couldn't believe it! There was the squirrel swimming with all of its might toward the deep end! I had half a mind to close the sliding door after that catastrophe and leave it alone. But out I went in my pajamas, got the net and tried to scoop the poor thing out. It doggy-paddled clumsily, obviously exhausted from the excitement it had experienced just moments before. It took a couple of tries, but I was finally able to scoop it out and deposit it on the concrete.
The poor thing! Soaked to the bone, it dragged itself under the fence and ran to the forest, away from the big bad humans who had caused it so much stress! I'm certain that when it reached its family, it had quite a tale to tell. And it was barely 7:00 am.
Now to find this intruder's point of entry. As the kids padded back to bed complaining about the "stupid squirrel" and having to get up so early, I checked out the house. I was positive I had heard it scurry from the basement earlier. I went and checked all the basement windows. Closed and locked. I checked the crawl space. Everything was as it should be. Perhaps the squirrel had come in through the front door if it hadn't been latched properly? Sometimes the wind blew it open...
A while later I checked the exterior basement wall of the original part of the house where several holes had been closed that had vented the old furnace, etc. One particularly large hole was situated higher up on the wall. Then I saw the evidence. Old pieces of insulation lying on the floor in front of what turned out to be the old chimney vent. That meant this poor squirrel had been on the roof, pushed the wire cage capping the old chimney aside and had promptly fallen down the chimney and landed in our basement. It had scrambled to get out and pushed the insulation that had been stuffed in the vent, out of its way. What thoughts would have gone through its head as it wandered through our basement, padding up the stairs into the kitchen, through the living room and finally, going for the swim of its life in our chilly pool?
Since our property has so many walnut trees, we are Squirrel Central. What can you do? At any given time throughout the day, you can see squirrels scaling the fences, running across the grass, clamouring up in the trees and burying their food in the flowerbeds. Although they are considered to be a pest, we have come to some resolution over the years to co-exist with these bushy-tailed rodents. But worlds have collided! That invisible boundary has been crossed!
Worried that the squirrel may have left some less desirable presents in our home, I vacuumed and washed all the floors. My productive state of mind had long disappeared with the last swish of the bedraggled squirrel's tail. The rest of the day went by without any more excitement and I am happy to report that the hole that had been the entry point to yesterday's unwelcome visitor, is firmly stuffed once again. I've heard horror stories of squirrels building nests in attics and walls. Our squirrel's visit was short-lived and will be his last one. I also hope that he reports back to the rest of the squirrel colony not to enter the human's premises - for him, it was a house of horrors!
Lolita Schimann Hale
Comments
Post a Comment