Boy did I have an exciting weekend. I came into work alone on Saturday to get some stuff done. I turned off the alarm and heard all kinds of banging (then my heart joined in) and then it just stopped. A couple things were out of place in the warehouse, but nothing dramatic. I called Allen and he said it was the roofer fixing our roof...but there was no truck to go with said roofer. Since the noise stopped, I just blew it off, put the couple items back and got to work. Few more noises, but nothing like the inital banging.On Monday (we were closed for the holiday) I again came in alone and there was MORE banging. This time Allen said it was the wind (it wasn't a windy day). I told him we had something in the warehouse but he said "Fear is the mind killer". I was getting annoyed. Went walking around the warehouse and found proof! There was a paper organizer that fell off a shelf that was pretty dusty, perfect for showing...squirrel footprints! The squirrel left all the offices alone except, you got it, the disbeliever Allen! hehehe (Well, his office has a window so the squirrel was probably trying to get out).
So, now I had proof and we put a call into the landlord. He said to open all the bay doors and our squirrel would leave. No such luck. I called Willow Grove Animal Control and they never returned my call. I called 3 exterminators and they all wanted hundreds of dollars to trap the little guy, couldn't come out right away, etc., etc.
Meanwhile, my warehouse is getting trashed. The worst part was our warehouse was a machine shop previously and all the rafters have inches of black, sooty, greasy, metal dust. Guess where Mr. Squirrel was running around? Yep, all our counters, shelves, computers, EVERYTHING was being rained on while he scampered around.
And to make things worse, it was like he wanted to stay! This morning (we called the employees to warn them) Michelle is the first to show up and there he is sitting in the window (that's the picture of him) like he's all at home! Michelle parks in front of this window and said she was laughing so hard she couldn't park. The bay doors were open for hours and he just stayed up in the rafters hopping around. There was no way this guy was leaving without encouragement.
We were able to get a catch and release trap from a friend this morning but he wouldn't go in it. Finally this afternoon Allen and Dennis wrangled him back into Allen's office. We locked him in, Allen bravely went in and removed the screen from the window and we all hooted and hollered and he finally went flying out the window into the woods. Ugh!
We really think he planned to stay. There was evidence that he had nuts stashed all around our warehouse so this wasn't his first visit. I bet he never comes hiding or looking for his nuts again. He was trapped in here at least 5 days. Happyily, he's back in Mother Nature and probably thanking his lucky stars he got away from all us crazy people.
Funny thing is, I don't think he took any beads!
Carolyn. That is so funny. It reminds me of the time we had a little possum in our basement. He would not leave either. He finally fell into an empty trash can and could not get out. I dropped in some dry cat food for him to eat while I was at work, and that afternoon I put the trashcan in my trunk and took him to the lake and let him go.
ReplyDeleteThat's too funny!
ReplyDeleteSquirrels are always cute-FROM A DISTANCE. I heard they like shiny things so you should check your inventory :-)
ReplyDeleteWhy didn't you just shoot it? ;)
ReplyDeleteThey did shoot it, with a camera.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of winter before last when my husband and I trapped and released 25 and I do mean 25 flying squirrels in our attic. We didn't know there was that many flying squirrels in Saline County. The funnly thing is that Tom would take them down the road each morning on his way to work and release them into this huge oak tree. They would gladly leave the cage and scurry up the tree and probably made it back to our house before he got to work!!!; however, one morn. he raised the door and this guy ran up his arm and got into his shirt pocket! Well, my husband being raised on a farm, knew the little guy wouldn't hurt him so he took him out to investigate. It was just a baby. To make a long story short, we have had Rocky for 2 years now. He is so precious. We let him out of his cage and he loves to "fly" back and forth from one of us to the other. He will stay on me or in my pocket all day, if I will let him.
ReplyDeleteI have also raised 2 little grey squirrels by bottle until they were old enough to release. In case you can't tell, we are true animal lovers and have a way with the "wild". Next time, put some pecans or peanut butter in the cage and I bet you will catch a squirrel!
Janis
Awww, now I want a baby flying squirrel!
ReplyDelete