The baby squirrel
Tuesday night neither Joani or I got very good sleep. We both heard something rustling around, I sort of assumed it was a cat doing something annoying, Joani seemed to have a bit more problem with it so her sleep was impacted a bit more. I get up around 5:30 now so after getting ready I went downstairs and turned onthe light in the living room. Swoosh, a small brown shape shoots acroos the floor for the nearest cover, makes a lap out of the living room, into the kitchen, and then under the dining room table. The cats find this interesting and Miss Kitty is beside herself. There is a small standoff between her and the intruder in the dinning room and I get my first good look at the baby squirrel that has somehow found himself in the house.
Poor guy is pretty confused and looking for safety from the three cats attention he now has, not to mention the big biped. I grab something to throw on him hoping to catch him. He shortly finds refuge under the entertainement center, and the cats (and I) are thwarted for now. Off to work I go expecting to come home to carnage and a present left in my lazy boy or Joani’s office chair.
I check out the situation at lunch and see no blood, no sign of the baby squirrel, and 3 cats sacked out as if they have had a really active morning trying to flush the interloper out.
3 pm and I get home from work, walk in and find Tye, the fat cat sitting near the front door staring with great concern at where the squirrel must still be hiding. Tye relaxes after I give him a good head scratching to let him know job well done, walk to my normal backpack drop off and set it down. Zoom, the little guy shoots out from his refuge, along the wall and then up under my lazyboy to come to a hault right between my feet. We stand there looking at each other neither not sure exactly what to do for a minute or two and he finally flinches and finds a small hole in the grate of the blower on the fireplace.
Eventually I come upon a plan after a couple of games of hide and seek with the squirrel who pokes his head out to see if I am stil watching him. I grab a decent sized clear plastic rubber tub and lid. Put some peanut butter in one end and prop the lid and tub covering the hole. I sit and wait. No squirrel can resist a glob of peanut butter, let alone a baby squirrel.
Amazingly the makeshift trap works, he eventually creeps out of his little metal cave crawls far enough out that I can slam the lid closed and snap him up. With lid closed he decides all is right with the world and snacks on the peanut buter treat until I get him outside and set him free.
