A cute little squirrel
Squirrels are kind of cute. Like when they’re 30+ feet away from me, gnawing on nuts and minding their own business.
A squirrel in my house? Not so cute.
I woke up Wednesday morning at around 4:30 am to odd little scratching sounds. At first, I thought our little Lab granddog, Ryder, was grooming herself. She sleeps with Barry and me, right up on our bed… like the princess she knows she is. Ryder loves to look beautiful, and she grooms herself with adorable delicacy. I sat up in bed to check on her, but she was sound asleep.
I cocked my ears, but headed back under the covers. The sounds returned.
I woke up Barry to those words that husbands love, “Honey, do you hear that?”
“What?” he answered, half… no, wholly asleep.
“Those scratching sounds. Above our heads. Like something is in the attic,” I whispered.
Barry responded with manly self-assuredness, “Ryder would be going crazy if there was something in the attic.”
“OK,” I agreed.
But the sounds returned, and this time Barry perked up. There was definitely something in our attic, right above our heads, moving around. We could hear its paws and nails…
At this, Barry and I popped out of bed. Barry grabbed his binoculars and we headed outside (the front of our house, on the side where the interloper was, is 3 stories high, so the binoculars would come in handy). Our house is also on a fairly main road, but at that early hour no-one was around. No walkers. No runners or cyclists. No cars. We crossed the street and stood on the opposite sidewalk, Barry scanning the gutters and roof line over our bedroom.
Barry soon whispered, “Ah, ha. A hole,” as he focused in on one area. Then he said, “And there’s the culprit.”
He handed me the binoculars… and there it was. A squirrel. Popping its head out like he/she actually lived there. Like a high-rise condo with a nice little balcony. Mocking us. I said something totally inappropriate that began with, “That little…” that I won’t repeat here, and I said it rather loudly (cut me a little slack here, please, because I was thinking about the time and $ it was going to take to evict this visitor).
And that’s when I noticed a lady, walking her dog, passing right behind me on the sidewalk.
I almost died. Here were these two people standing on the sidewalk at the very crack of dawn with a pair of binoculars focused in on… what “Little #@#*”? What did she think? Were we stalking someone? Were we just… nuts?
She didn’t say anything. And I said nothing more. But I looked at Barry and we burst into inappropriate laughter. Inappropriate seemed the order of the morning.
So now here were these two people standing on the sidewalk at the very crack of dawn with a pair of binoculars focused in on… what “Little #@#*”? And laughing like little school girls.
Ah… good times.
Long story short… that little bugger cost us, so far, $395.00 to humanely remove it and put a temporary screen over the hole. Next comes the carpenter/contractor to head up to that squirrel condo with the nice view and mend the hole. That oughta be a fun bill.
What a cute little squirrel.
NOT.
You crack me up. I would have been laughing too. Head over to my blog. I have a surprise for you.
I’m so sorry you had a negative experience with squirrels. I have a fondness for them. So funny, but they’ve never been in our attic….maybe because we don’t have one.
We’ve seen a couple of dozens squirrels “playing chase” in the winter running across the bare trees in our yard, in a circle from tree to tree to tree for long periods of time.
We’ve seen them chase each other in a circle from yard to yard across the street and back, ten, maybe twenty of them, like little kids in a pack. Adorable.
Then again, we’ve had what we called the Messiah squirrel because he was all white. Unique, he was easy to spot and spent over a year-and-a-half in our neighborhood. His other name was Peanut, because Tony used to hand fee him honey roasted peanuts while he sat on Tony’s knee, or he’d sit on Tony’s or our son Dave’s shoulder. One day, I looked out our kitchen window and saw him lying in the street, a stream of blood emanating from his mouth. While my mother-in-law stood over him to guard him from being smashed, I got a shovel and gently scooped him in a box. My brother-in-law, two doors down, burried Peanut in his yard. So Peanut, in a way, is still with us.
Unbelievable, you say? Check out the story, with photo, on my facebook page.
But, truly, I feel for you, and your pocketbook. I know they can be destructive, but they are so darned funny.
Just found your blog and love it…will be back often…
I feel the same way about squirrels. So cute, but not in my house. I no longer say I am going out to fill the bird feeders… I have now named them the squirrel feeders. I saw one of those feeders the other day that zaps them when the approach. No Way! I would rather keep the feeders empty.
Great blog.. I used to feel left out of mom blogs and web sites since my children are now 19 and 17 and driving themselves around. I feel like an empty nester, but I am still a mom
I adore squirrels. I was bitten by one when I was 8. I totally would have helped out with that situation if I lived nearby and you called me up. Gloves, protective eyewear, in I go!
We have been dealing with unwanted ‘guests’ for two summers now. Apparently our screened in porch is a nice summer home for squirrels! We thought we got rid of them last year, and re-screened the porch where they slashed their way through with their vicious claws. A few weeks ago we went to let the dog out, and 3 of the little buggers came diving out of the rafters and through a hole they had chewed though the screen!! My husband immediately went for the only gun we own…a bb gun. WE are no longer being humane.
Last time we kept them away using our children’s spy gear. One of those little devices that makes a horrible beeping sound when someone enters a room. We put it up in the rafters and when the squirrel would cross the invisible beam, the high-pitched noise would send them scurrying out. So, we put new batteries in, and it’s back out there.
I’m not sure how this happens, but our deck is on the second floor of our house and screened it to boot. Yet, we have had an opposum, birds, and squirrels get stuck in there.
Sorry to hear it cost so much for your repairs.
Well, we haven’t had one in our house, but they walk up the back steps to get a better look at kids around here. They love kids. My son, well, he is in your camp, let’s just say that. Video evidence: http://teamhoopes.blogspot.com/2009/05/letter.html
To Linda Calder (post above), I love this blog too, and my sons are 28 and 26….and no grandchildren. But Sharon has so much to offer, doesn’t she?
How annoying! Glad it turned into a humorous situation though. Let me know if you and Barry want to come search for the hole a mouse used to get into my house (and/or help me evict him too!). I am not a fan of wild life indoors.
Sorry I’m laughing, not at the $ you spent though. We had one that lived in our wall for a while and our dog ate through the wall and carpet trying to get it while we were at work one day. It probably cost us that much or more to replace the wall and floor.