Perry,
This reminds me of when I was having the house siding redone.
Apparently a squirrel got in through an opening that was inadvertently
left uncovered by the contractor.
We were made aware of a problem when we kept hearing squeeks and other
noises from the bathroom on the second floor. I finally saw a bit of
the squirrel around the drainpipe.
The solution was opening up the hole, which caused the squirrel to move
away from the hole, and then wait at the hole with a bucket and lid.
My predicament came out with much anxiety and a closed bathroom door and
a successful capture of the squirrel in the bucket.
The release of the squirrel back outdoors was easy.
It could have been a lot worse, and I think my girlfriend stayed outside
of the bathroom as I took care of the problem.
César
Panama City, Florida
Perry Pellechia wrote:
(long tale of woe follows)
My wife, Marianne, and I love to head to the shore any chance we get
to beach comb.
We live about two hours from Charleston, SC and the beach we go to
often is Folly
Beach. Since we spend all our time looking for shells I rarely bring a camera
because my hands are usually pretty sandy and wet. Today I took our
Canon A80 and
got this photo of the Morris Island light house. As you can see there
is nothing left of
Morris Island due to erosion. Yes the light house is tilting.
http://homer.chem.sc.edu/perry/peso/img_1962b.jpg
The image is nothing special but offer comments if you please.
We had a great time at the beach. We found a couple of species of
shells we have not
found before, which is rare because we have been to this beach pretty
often. Everything
was going great until we got home. Shortly after we finished cleaning
up we heard a thud
from the fireplace. At first I was not sure what it was but soon
figured out that some
animal fell into the chimney. My hope of it climbing out the same way
it got in was quickly
dashed. When it started clawing on the flue door I knew it had to be
a squirrel.
After several minutes of paralysis we devised a plan to trap the
squirrel in a large plastic
storage container that fit under the flue. We sealed off the opening
of the fire place with a
clear plastic shower curtain and duct tape so that if something went
wrong the squirrel
could not run into the house. We had the lid of the container ready
to slide over the
plastic tub. All we had to do was:
1) open the flue
2) have squirrel fall into tub
3) slide cover onto tub.
So I reach in and pull the flue open. We hear something fall into the
tub and we slam the
tub shut. Great, the plan worked! Then to our dismay we realize the
squirrel was on top
of the cover. After cursing we get the cover off the tub and find the
damn rodent perched
on the inner wall of the hearth. We tried coaxing him into the tub
but had to pull open the
shower curtain to reach in with a fire poker. The furry menace did
not take the hint. I
reach for a hockey stick and with the stick in one hand and the poker
in the other I try to
force the sooty rodent to fall in the tub.
This is when things went horribly wrong. As I am trying to knock him
into the tub he
crawls onto the poker. He then races along the poker, to my arm then
over my head and
down my back as I knelt in front of the fire place. Marianne screams
as the squirrel runs
to the far corner of the family room. We chase him into the kitchen
(thankfully he does not
go behind the fridge), back into the family room. Here he tries to
jump into/over the TV.
We finally get him into the enclosed porch and finally out into the yard.
Afterwards I thought I should have taken photos of the ordeal but at
the time I had other
things on my mind. I do have this photo of the aftermath:
http://homer.chem.sc.edu/perry/peso/img_1966a.jpg
This is the back of my shirt and the tracks left by the sooty pest.
<---------------------------------------------------->
Perry Pellechia
