Unwanted guest

Last sunday morning I heard something scraping against a pipe in the downstairs bathroom. Sound travels a long way when it is generated on or near a metal pipe so I wasn't sure where it was coming from. I went down into the basement and, looking up into the rafters, I caught a glimpse of a light brown fluffy tail. Squirrel! I had a squirrel in my basement!

I think the squirrel and I had the same end in mind - him out of my basement - but I'm sure we differed on the means to accomplish that end. I'm thinking traps, poison (no, poison will never do, especially not with my animal loving daughter at home); he's thinking "knock a hole in the wall and just let me out". I called a couple of "Pest Control" numbers and got no answer. No real surprise. Then I went to Home Depot with my daughter and bought a $23 cage trap. No harming the animal, just catch and release outside.

For a couple of days, the trap sat on the basement floor with a gob of peanut butter for bait. Then, after a couple of days I went downstairs and saw that the trap had sprung but the squirrel was not in it. Drat! About now, I'm thinking that maybe the trap is too small. I've had a couple of good looks at the squirrel and he is big! So, I went back to Home Depot and bought the larger $44 cage trap. I'll keep the smaller one to trap the chimpunk that is making a home under my front porch.

It's a little more trouble to set up the larger trap, much more complicated. Finally, I figure it out, set it up in the basement, and wait... Next day, I sneak down the stairs and see the squirrel, just sitting on the workbench looking at the large cage trap as if to say "Do you really think you can fool me with that again?". Well, yes! Yesterday morning, there he was, sitting in the closed trap, eating the peanut butter. I took the trap out to the nearby park, opened the door, and he just kind of sauntered off.

This spring, I'll go after the chipmunk!