rodent problem.

It never occurred to me to report the rodent problem at my old apartment building. To be honest, I assumed that the management knew about the squirrels that had taken up residence in the attic of the building. The area was fairly wooded for a city apartment complex, and there were lots of the little critters running rampant all around. Surely they had gotten into every building, and every third floor resident could hear them scritching around over their heads. If the management cared about doing anything about the situation, they would have done it already.

So I never bothered mentioning anything about the extra house guests. It didn't bother me, because I like squirrels and they sounded sorta cute scampering around up there. One month they did a lot of talking to each other, and I looked up every time I heard their weird animal chatter, as if I could see through the ceiling to see what they were arguing about. Some sort of domestic dispute, I suppose.

I had a pet squirrel when I was about twelve. Our dog roughed up a baby and we managed to rescue it. We kept it in a bucket with a piece of screen over it and fed him milk from a bottle. It only lasted a few days after the mauling. It could have been my lack of knowledge of how to take care of baby squirrels, but we'll blame it on the dog. I was excited to be that close to one, after years of wishing that I could catch and pet such a cute and furry thing. I know some people hate them, but squirrels are A-OK in my book. I think they're freaking adorable. Plus, they always look like they're having fun, which makes you think they might have reached a higher plane of wisdom to be so cheerful all the time. I think I could be happy as a squirrel.

As I was moving out, it finally clicked in my head that most residents were probably not as content as I was to let little gray creatures scratch around over their heads, cute though they may be. In fact, the majority of the population would call "rodent-infested" as a bad thing. It might even be dangerous to have them in the building, some sort of health or fire hazard. So maybe I should have reported them a long time ago instead of thinking of them as particularly small and furry neighbors.

Then I moved into my house, and I started wondering whether squirrels could get in there, too. I don't have an attic, but I have eaves that might make cozy squirrel resorts. I felt very differently about bushy-tailed neighbors when it was my property they might be invading. Suddenly, those small gray creatures seemed much more menacing, and I watched them suspiciously as they dug around in my yard. A couple of them had the nerve to climb up on the deck, my deck. I kept an eye on every one that came near the house, trying to watch out for any tiny suitcases they might be using to carry their nuts into their new digs under my roof.

But I haven't seen any of that, and I haven't heard any scritching. Just a bunch of squirrels running around the yard, jumping from branch to branch, being twitterpainted. They sure are cute.



Relevant Internet Links Just For Fun
Squirrel fishing
Squirrels attack dog