Vent Critter - The Final Chapter

Image via WikipediaMy wife woke me up early this morning to tell me that she didn't hear anything all night, and didn't hear anything come from the bathroom this morning.

I went downstairs to listen at the bathroom door.

Our visitor was rummaging around in the bathroom. I could hear him.. or her. It sounded like it was on the counter.

We set up our plywood barricade, left the front door open, and I carefully opened the bathroom door and waited. We opened it more. And waited. We opened it all the way. And waited. I turned on the bathroom light. More waiting.

More noise. A plastic wrap rustling sound. Flipping magazine pages sound. We thought that perhaps it got into the cupboard underneath the sink. Reading magazines? Although we had it blocked off with a case of coke, there was still a space between the doors and the cabinet where it could have squeezed in.

I stepped over our barricade and carefully pulled the case of coke away from the cupboard door. Back over the barricade and used a grabber thing to reach in and open one of the doors.

No squirrel. More sound. I tried for a few minutes to open the other door but it was stuck.

All of a sudden, it scurried out from the corner on the right. It must have been sitting in the corner the whole time, watching me move the case of coke.

It ran behind the toilet.

We waited, yet again.

Enough. Sandra handed me a long strip of wood and I poked behind the toilet to spook it out. Nothing.

After few more minutes of waiting, he or she came out from behind the garbage can, out into the open.

It was a red squirrel. I forgot they had grey bellies. Cute little thing.

It stood there wondering what to do. We stood watching it, wondering what to do. We called our son over to come see it. After a few "awwwwwws", it stood on its hind legs looking up at the counter.

Could it contemplating a return to its ceiling vent hideaway?

It jumped up onto the counter and again looked up at the ceiling, where the open vent was.

Hell no... you little bastard, it's time to go!

I still had the grabber in my hand. I stuck it in the bathroom door and whacked it (the grabber, not the squirrel) on the door frame a few times to scare it off the counter.

It scurried around on the counter for a brief moment trying to get a grip and fell off onto the floor. After a brief pause, it ran out into the hall in front of us... paused... then scooted out the door.

It barely made it out before Sandra slammed the door on its furry little ass.

Mission accomplished.

I would have had pictures, but getting the squirrel out was a priority, so taking photos was the last thing on my mind.

Sandra still wants the exterminator to come and screen off the access on the roof. I suggested calling the management office to let them know the squirrel was gone, to give them the option of doing it themselves.

Regardless, something has to be done today so we don't end up with a repeat of our adventure.