Naughty Squirrels

Some of you might want to call the Humane Society and some of you might want to head over with your shot gun. Hopefully neither of those things happen! We have a small squirrel problem which we have had since the fall. Squirrels are cute furry little animals that just climb trees and look cute with there bushy tails, right? Wrong! They have invaded our garage and are eating the wiring (as far as I know none of the lucky buggers have been electrocuted while biting through wires yet). They also ate through the Christmas lights while they were hanging on the trees, this could partially be my fault since the lights were out far too long and we just took them down this weekend. The worst thing (in my eyes) they have done is eat 100 freshly planted tulip bulbs! I had sprayed each individual bulb with some expensive spray called "squirrel-b-gone" which guaranteed squirrels would not like the taste and in turn would not eat your bulbs. I actually think it attracted the squirrels, those bulbs disappeared fast! I love tulips and this was the last straw for me. I told Dan he could get the BB gun he wanted and I bought the trap myself. We have had the trap set off and on in the garage for the winter with no luck. Saturday, we decided to put the trap outside and see what happened. Sunday morning the kids were watching the trap out the back window and saw a squirrel successfully get trapped in the cage!!Don't be fooled by the cute little innocent face.

Here he (or she) is demonstrating how they bite through wires (garage or Christmas lights)

Because of this recent success in the catching of a squirrel we spent lots of time yesterday resetting the trap and trying to catch more of these rodents. It would be especially rewarding to catch the ringleader squirrel, we can pick him out because he looks like he has a shaved tail, all the other squirrels have these bushy cute tails and his looks like it's been shaved or is soaking wet. Don't even start to feel sorry for him, he alone has eaten all of peanut butter, chocolate chips and cashews out of the trap then set it off without being trapped in it many times.

After the squirrel was trapped I called Dan on the phone to tell him the good news, luckily he was on his way home from the hospital. He jokingly said, if it's the one with the shaved tail, I might have to kill it. Abby overheard this and was out on a peace march for the squirrel before Dan pulled in the drive-way.

For all you tree hugging, Humane Society loving, squirrel friendly people out there. Our friend Mr. Squirrel was safely released into the wild far away from our house (Dan was tempted to spin him around a whole bunch so he couldn't find his way back to our house).