Yes, my Hordeling, we found another squirrel running around our house.
The wife and I were working in the living room, trying to hang the new curtains, the replacements for the ones the previous squirrel ruined.
I heard a noise, and turned my head right at the same time as the wife. We both saw something go scurrying by in the hallway.
I went out to look and it was a squirrel. The little furball darted into the dining room.
I went into the dining in time to see it go under the dining room table. As I was trying to maneuver to be able to see the squirrel, the wife said it went by her in the hallway and up the stairs again.
We decided to take immediate action this time and called an exterminator. The wife talked to the company while I went upstairs to try to find the critter then hopefully drive it back downstairs and out an open door.
I couldn’t find the beast anywhere. Apparently it was hidden away and not making a sound.
I went back downstairs. The wife informed me the extermination company was sending someone over right away. We considered ourselves lucky because we wanted the squirrel out of the house before the nasty winter storm moved it the area.
The guy showed up about twenty minutes later. His first order of business was to go into the attic. He said he saw a few things around the outside of the house that might have been potential entry points for the squirrels. He’d check the attic fist, then do a more thorough look around the outside of the house.
He found a few things in the attic that will need to be plugged. He suspected the squirrels were getting in there, mainly trying to stay warm with all the cold weather outside, then getting into the downstairs living area by crawling in the spaces between the walls.
As we exited the attic, the wife called up to us saying the squirrel had gone downstairs again. We hastened down the steps in time for the furball to run into the kitchen and trap himself in a corner. Unfortunately the exterminator guy didn’t bring anything to trap the squirrel with him to the job. It seems there wasn’t clear communication between the wife, the office, and the exterminator and he didn’t know there was a squirrel in the house.
We managed to get the squirrel to move out of the corner then he charged into the living room, jumped on the couch and tried to smash his way though the window. All he managed to do was bounce off it and land back on the couch. We had doors open for him to exit but no luck. From there he darted back across the living room and up the stairs again.
The exterminator went out to measure the outside roofline and put together an estimate on what the job would cost to close all the opening the squirrels might get into and set up a one-way trap where the squirrel would be able to exit the house but not get back in. He also suggested going to the store and picking up some catch-and-release traps in case we couldn’t get the squirrel out of the house.
When he finished he came inside and was going over the estimate when the squirrel came down the stairs again. It went back to the kitchen again, in the same corer as before. This time we set up barriers to try and guide him to the open door. The exterminator again scared the squirrel into leaving the corner. It jumped to the floor then ran to the open door. Then it ran right past it. I was surprised. It had a clear, empty path to the outside and didn’t take it.
Eventually it ran upstairs again.
We built up barriers and closed the doors to other rooms off the hallway, hoping the squirrel would come down again and go out the open front door. I took the opportunity to go to the store to pick up two catch-and-release traps and several packs of peanut butter crackers.
I got home and the wife said she thinks the squirrel ran out the front door. She said it came downstairs and was by the ornamental room divider going into the study. She said she thought it had crawled under the divider, but she had tuned her attention away to something else. She didn’t hear the squirrel anymore and guessed it had escaped. This is the same thing that happened to me with the first squirrel. I lost it in the study and thought it had gone out the front door, but I didn’t actually see it do so. Ultimately, that squirrel ended up dead.
I moved through the study looking for the beast and making noise enough to hope it got startled and bolted. No such luck.
I went ahead and set up the catch-and-release traps, one upstairs and one downstairs. I baited each one with some of the peanut butter crackers. I thought about putting some water in the cages but didn’t have anything small enough to fit in the cage to hold the water.
So far neither cage has been sprung and we’ve heard no sounds from the squirrel. We’re hoping that means it is outside where it belongs. That, or it might be outside, climbing to the roof and coming right back in again. We’ll see what happens.
I hope you aren’t playing cat-and-mouse with any wild beasties in your abode, my Hordeling.
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