We had an interesting thing happen here at the MInTheGap house. Almost two weeks ago my family was outside playing when a squirrel came out from a bush and made a nasty sound. This happened right near the swing-set where the kids were playing.
Virtuous Blonde quickly brought the children inside, but she left the garage door open.
As you can imagine, the animal found its way into the garage, and so when we shut the door that night we shut it in there.
It didn’t sound healthy, and we didn’t know what to do about it. We called the local animal control, only to find out that they only catch dogs. So then we called the local department of public health—since its behavior seemed to indicate that it could have rabies or some other disease.
They informed us that we’d have to call a private trapper. We were looking at $75 just to have a guy come out. We wished we had, or knew someone who had some kind of animal traps.
What have you done in a situation like this? Have you done anything?
A friend of ours actually got a trap and took the animal they trapped somewhere to be let go. For us, we weren’t sure what was wrong with the squirrel, and, to put it nicely, it is no longer with us.
It turns out that the area we live has a lot of animals reported, and that they have requested that, unless we know the animal has had human or pet contact, that you double bag and dispose of it.
Had I had a trap, I definitely would have taken that initiative instead of what we ended up doing, that’s for sure.
Safety first. Nothing much else to be done when wildlife (even a squirrel) share space with humans. I remember some time ago, they shot this poor bear in Minnesota who had a plastic jar stuck on his head. Its out fault actually, but no other choice.
Posted by Ling | September 24, 2008, 4:38 amWe had an issue with birds flying in to the garage when we’d open the door. They some how got in and made a nest in one of the overhead lights. If we tried to go into the garage they felt threaten and would fly towards the door. Eventually it tapered off…
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Posted by Colleen | September 24, 2008, 7:25 amYikes. Squirrels in the garage aren’t much fun. Glad you figured out a way to solve the problem! Here in the “country” we’re over-run with squirrels. One actually got into our attic somehow and so we put a live trap up there with bait, but the squirrel wasn’t interested. Dh finally saw it run across our roof and disappear behind a gutter…so we finally knew how it was getting inside (a hidden rotted place) but we didn’t want to fix it and trap the squirrel inside! Finally dh saw it one day heading in or out and shot it. We still have the live trap up in the attic, w/out bait…too bad you don’t live closer! My hubby is a free exterminator.
Thanks SO much for reminding me of that adventure. :O/
Posted by Mary | September 24, 2008, 10:18 amOh gosh. Poor squirrel! But I’m glad your family wasn’t hurt during any of this. You gotta keep the kiddos safe first.
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Posted by Rachel | September 24, 2008, 11:07 amWe had birds at my parent’s house before the automatic garage door openers.
Let’s just say that the death this squirrel faced (after coming after my father) was more gruesome than a shooting.
Posted by MInTheGap | September 24, 2008, 1:51 pmAs I was raised in the country (right across from a cotton field, no less), I know exactly what we would have done, haha. My dad would have called my grandfather, borrowed a live trap, caught the squirrel in the trap (fyi, we’ve used the trap before to catch mean cats that would beat up my parents’ cats), and then took it off to a park or forest. Of course, that comes from spending 18 years in a town — no, VILLAGE — with one gas station and no red light.
Lois Lane IIs last blog post..Pray, please
Posted by Lois Lane II | September 24, 2008, 4:30 pmWell, since my hubby is a hunter, he probably would have shot it. Not much else to say.
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Posted by Leticia | September 24, 2008, 5:57 pm