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Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Meryl the Squirrel Update (part I)


Meryl the Squirrel Update (part I)

Last week I posted on my new little friend…this guy
 (pic).





He would not leave my screen even when I went nose to nose to him.  A cute little fellow.  Squirrels are so cute.  Why do so many people not like squirrels?  I needed to name the little fellow since we became friends.  My daughter suggested Meryl after her favorite childhood story, “Meryl the High Flying Squirrel.”

So Meryl it is.  The problem with naming an animal is you now feel responsible for it.  I soon found out why Meryl was so close and friendly hanging onto my screen door.

Above the sliding doors to our deck is a decorative eave roof.  While I was on my deck enjoying a glass of wine and a good cigar, an occasional treat I give myself when Mrs. C is at work and not around to make me feel guilty, I heard a strange noise.  I could not track it. 

It seemed like it was coming from the decorative eave above the door.  I then looked from an angle and saw the eave had a perfect manmade hole in the aluminum siding.  Why this hole?  Absolutely no reason.  Stupidity, laziness, using leftover parts and ignoring the hole…whatever reason there was a hole to the eave.  The squirrel climbing the screen now made perfect sense.

When the screen door is in the correct closed position, a squirrel can use it to easily climb up to the hole in the eave.  When it is in the “open” position a squirrel can climb up, but not reach the hole…at least an inexperienced baby cannot.  Meryl was trying to reach his nest and he could not with the screen in the open position.  When it was closed, he found his way into the hole.

So now I was faced with Meryl and possibly others in his family, living in my eave.  Meryl was no longer so cute.  He would probably not or could not do too much damage living in the eave, but they do chew on stuff a lot and the scratching rustling noises he made while we were in our kitchen were pretty distracting.

What to do? What to do?

I waited until Meryl went out of his home to scavenge for food.  I made sure to keep the screen in proper squirrel climbing mode for his safety.  When I heard no eave scratching or rustling, I assumed the squirrel home was clear.  I rapped it several times and heard nothing which confirmed the nest was empty.  I then put a cover over the hole in such a way that a squirrel could still get out if he was trapped, but would be discouraged and would have trouble getting back in.  Hey, he is a squirrel, if he wants to get back in he could find a way.  I then made sure to keep the screen in the hard to climb and reach position for a few days.

When I am completely sure the nest is empty, the hole will be covered more permanently.

Fingers crossed.

19 comments:

  1. I'll cross my fingers too. Oh, that poor homeless squirrel, Meryl. :'(

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  2. Fingers crossed here too, but poor Meryl, thinking he/she has found a nice safe home and now has to find another. Perhaps the hole was meant for a drain pipe to be fitted?

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  3. I've yet to see a squirrel here in Phoenix, maybe its a good thing. Good luck with your adventures with Meryl and dissuading him from taking up permanent resident at your place.

    betty

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  4. Meryl will just have to move!

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  5. Never trust a squirrel no matter how endearing he is. My lesson was learned the hard way.

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  6. The squirrels will find a better home.

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  7. i love them though they eat up all my pomegranates and watermelon .
    they behave like mouse most often but cuter then them so easily get our sympathy.
    Hope your friend leaves you alone

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  8. Cute?? Please. Squirrels are just rats with bushy tails.

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  9. This is a dilemma. We had possible squirrels in our attic. They chewed a hole through our eave. We heard them in our attic. We sent our lab sniffing for them. We saw evidence of them burrowed in the insulation. I even went so far as to buy squirrel traps - I was going to release them. I spent a ton of money cutting down all the trees around the house so they couldn't hop over to the roof. But alas, they are not in our attic, they do scale our house and one evenvisited Graham at his window. Cute and I love them but they have cost us lots of money even before they could have done some serious damage. Plus they are a protected specious here in Noryh Carolina.

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  10. You named your squirrel and then evicted same squirrel? Poor thing. You crack me up.

    I do agree that I don't want critters moving into my home. Pretty soon they are throwing parties and inviting all their friends over and leaving the mess for you to clean up.

    Have a fabulous day, Joe. ☺

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  11. Good choice on both the name and eviction, squirrels can do a lot of damage once they start on a project.

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  12. You evicted a baby squirrel???? Hope you find a better landlord Meryl.
    Seriously Joeh, be careful next time you go nose to nose with him. Meryl may want revenge.

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  13. I love nature, but wild tenants are where I draw the line.

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  14. That's no way to treat a guest!!

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  15. It's all fun and games until somebody discovers a squirrel is squatting in his house.

    Meryl is probably climbing the screen doors of your neighbors now, with a little red bandana bundle of his belongings tied to a stick over his shoulder.

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  16. Good luck! We've been fighting them critters for 27 years and only just marked the first 5-years-straight period of keeping them out ....

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  17. You're an exterminator with a heart!

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