Outlook Good

So, Mr. Wildlife's team of squirrel-tamers came out. I told them I liked the squirrel and to just leave it. They said they would get in trouble and had driven two hours to get here, so pretty much needed to do the job. I almost started to cry.

I showed them the bare spot where my glorious tree once stood and informed them that their boss was to blame and I still hadn't forgiven him. They reminded me that he wasn't actually going to feed my squirrel to the homeless, so I should give him a break. I showed them the other tree that he wanted to be cut back, and how I rebelled because I do what I want, plus I wanted the squirrels to have an escape route, so Mr. Tree left it. By this point, they were giving each other little looks and stepping back slowly. Obviously intimidated by my rebellious streak and refusal to back down when faced with a bully Wildlife expert. Or they thought I was a bit crazy.

So, they did whatever they do, and fixed this and patched that and messed with that other thing, and then came the time to set the traps. I had been watching the weather for even the slightest change. If the temperature was going to get below 50, the squirrel would get stuck in the cage on the roof and be cold. The guys told me it would be fine. I asked if I could leave it a blanket. They looked at each other and said, "um, I guess...".

Finally, one of the guys told me that they really weren't seeing evidence of anything having used the openings recently. There certainly wasn't any indication that a nest was being built, so chances are they wouldn't catch anything. I was thrilled. He asked if we had heard anything in the attic in the last few weeks since the tree came down. I thought about it and there hadn't been any noises. At all... Then he did the greatest thing ever...or at least the greatest thing I could imagine right then. He said he would use the trap with the missing door for the roof, so it would be a one-way door. Since there wasn't a nest, the squirrel might just go off and squirrel somewhere else. Also, he should me how to open the trap I could reach, but warned me that he wasn't responsible if I got scared releasing the squirrel.(I think he was trying to say that if I got scratched he didn't want to hear about it, but was too nice to come out and say it.)

Once it was all done, we started talking about how I needed to check the traps and let them know if there was anything in them, but they would come by every couple of days, anyway.  I asked why they didn't just have a little thing on the cage that notified them when something was in there, or like little webcams? One guy's face lit up. He said he was going to make an app that would message his phone when a trap was full. He said I couldn't steal his idea. I explained that the closest thing I could come to creating the app was to hire neighborhood children to sit up there and call me when something came out. Since that was unlikely to be approved by the HOA or the parents, he was pretty much it as far as Trapper Apps go.

So, it has been almost a week and nary a sound. I have been watching the squirrels, and they are all staying away from the house.I did sort of put the feeders waaaaaaay in the back, tucked behind a tree so no one could see it. Everyone seems very happy with it, and no one comes up to the house. The crew is coming back later this week to remove the traps and finish the job, so the outlook is good.


I will be so glad to have this whole thing done so I can focus on bringing in new plants.

I do what I want...sometimes.