I love wildlife and squirrels are no exception. Growing up on a farm there were no shortages of them. I loved watching my dog, Mitzi, chasing them as the wind blew her ears back. It wasn’t until I moved onto my own country spread that I had my first “up-close” squirrel encounter.
Now, married with 2 children, we moved to a beautiful, picturesque farmette. It was an old 2-story, old, farm house that sat on a ridge with a southern exposure overlooking the valley with a stream. One cold winter night I was at the top of the stairs, ready to come down, when I noticed a tiny pair of eyes at the bottom looking back at me. Imagine my shock to discover a baby squirrel at the bottom of the stairs. He quickly hid …...somewhere. Our two dogs were frantically trying to sniff him out. Clearly, catching this squirrel would not be easy.
So, what to do when a squirrel gets into the house? The first step was to collect the dogs and isolate them in their kennels away from the main area. Poor things couldn’t figure out what they had done wrong. Let’s just say they were not happy.
Then, we searched out the squirrel looking in every nook and corner, behind furniture, blocking off the upstairs to try and keep him on the main level. He was nowhere to be found.
We decided, “hoped”, the squirrel must have found his own way out so we gave up the search to watch some TV in the living room. Approximately, 10 minutes went by and there he was.... ”creeping”, inquisitively into the room. Of course, as soon as one of us moved he was gone.... back into hiding.
So, here we were, on a cold winter evening as bedtime drew closer. The dogs were still in their kennels, anxious, wondering what was going on. We didn’t want to go to bed knowing squirrel eyes may be looking back at us when we woke up. And, certainly, that little guy did not want to wake up the next day to see our eyes looking back!
Since the front door of the house accessed the living room, we decided to open both the solid, wood door and the screen door. We would then wait to see if the squirrel would be enticed. We sat perfectly still all the while keeping our eyes open for the squirrel to appear. It was not easy just sitting there as the cold wintery air infiltrated our cozy living room. Thankfully, we did not have to wait long. Crouched, the squirrel slowly crawled toward the door until he was on the threshold looking out. He suddenly turned around with this look on his face as if to say, “You’ve got to be kidding!! You want me to go out there?!” We sprang into action moving towards him “encouraging” him to exit the house with dignity.
When a squirrel gets into your house, what do you do?
Now, married with 2 children, we moved to a beautiful, picturesque farmette. It was an old 2-story, old, farm house that sat on a ridge with a southern exposure overlooking the valley with a stream. One cold winter night I was at the top of the stairs, ready to come down, when I noticed a tiny pair of eyes at the bottom looking back at me. Imagine my shock to discover a baby squirrel at the bottom of the stairs. He quickly hid …...somewhere. Our two dogs were frantically trying to sniff him out. Clearly, catching this squirrel would not be easy.
So, what to do when a squirrel gets into the house? The first step was to collect the dogs and isolate them in their kennels away from the main area. Poor things couldn’t figure out what they had done wrong. Let’s just say they were not happy.
Then, we searched out the squirrel looking in every nook and corner, behind furniture, blocking off the upstairs to try and keep him on the main level. He was nowhere to be found.
We decided, “hoped”, the squirrel must have found his own way out so we gave up the search to watch some TV in the living room. Approximately, 10 minutes went by and there he was.... ”creeping”, inquisitively into the room. Of course, as soon as one of us moved he was gone.... back into hiding.
So, here we were, on a cold winter evening as bedtime drew closer. The dogs were still in their kennels, anxious, wondering what was going on. We didn’t want to go to bed knowing squirrel eyes may be looking back at us when we woke up. And, certainly, that little guy did not want to wake up the next day to see our eyes looking back!
Since the front door of the house accessed the living room, we decided to open both the solid, wood door and the screen door. We would then wait to see if the squirrel would be enticed. We sat perfectly still all the while keeping our eyes open for the squirrel to appear. It was not easy just sitting there as the cold wintery air infiltrated our cozy living room. Thankfully, we did not have to wait long. Crouched, the squirrel slowly crawled toward the door until he was on the threshold looking out. He suddenly turned around with this look on his face as if to say, “You’ve got to be kidding!! You want me to go out there?!” We sprang into action moving towards him “encouraging” him to exit the house with dignity.
When a squirrel gets into your house, what do you do?
