I Just Had a Moment With a Squirrel: Part Deux

[China]

Squirrel stores thousands of nuts inside man's parked truck

 

This story is nuts -- literally.

 

A man in North Dakota has been saddled with a massive cleanup job, caused by a tiny, furry perpetrator.

 

"The red squirrel will come behind, run along the frame rail and all the way up to the front," said Bill Fischer.

 

 

Fischer just cannot win the war. A beautiful black walnut tree in the yard produces nuts that a red squirrel finds irresistible. However, the squirrel has picked Fisher's Chevy Avalanche as the winter storage hideout for hundreds of these nuts, each about the size of a small lemon.

 

"A lot of places, in the radiator fan, all the way through here, that corner has been covered full with walnuts," said Fischer. "It was planning on camping there for the winter."

 

 

That includes the engine compartment, fenders... nothing is off limits.

 

"I had to pull the fenders off and clean out all the walnuts out, and thought I had them all and took it down the road, turned the corner and found one rolling inside the windshield where the wipers go," said Fischer.

 

Fisher's dog, Ashur, is beside himself. That pesky little red squirrel seems to taunt him.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

‘Squirrelzilla’ proves Maine’s gray squirrels are fat and fluffy this fall

 

They call it “Squirrelzilla.”

 

The gray squirrel rules supreme in a southern Maine homeowner’s yard, scampering up exterior walls and terrorizing the household dog.

He is, in a word, chonky. Really, really chonky.

 

 

Chonky, chunky, big-boned and rotund. That’s how people around the state are describing gray squirrels this season, which seem to be larger than in years past. Folks have been swapping photos of the super-sized rodents on social media, claiming to have the most robust of them all in their yards.

 

Have you seen any extremely large squirrels this year?

Based on her photos, Beth Ditkoff of Damariscotta may be able to claim that distinction. She has a squirrel so large that the support posts on her deck rails are not large enough for him to hide behind.

 

“I’m looking at him right now because he’s watching me through the glass door,” Ditkoff said during a phone interview Tuesday morning. “We have this deck and we are used to seeing squirrels scampering around, but there is no scampering anymore.”

 

Click on the link for the full story

[88Comrade2000]

While waiting for the bus to take me dialysis; I saw a squirrel with a slice of pizza in its mouth. After it dropped it, threw it in trash. Think it was mad at me; as it was making noises later on. I took its breakfast.

[China]

 

[China]

National Squirrel Appreciation Day – January 21, 2022

 

Originally a creation by Christy Hargrove, National Squirrel Appreciation Day on January 21 is a day to learn about and celebrate the world’s cutest rodents. Here’s the thing about squirrels: some people hate them and say that they’re “invasive species.” But can those people leap across a space ten times the length of their body? Didn’t think so. 

 

[China]

It's so hot in Texas that squirrels are splooting. Yes, splooting.

 

It's hot, y'all. And there really isn't any way of escaping it, even with a little rain across North Texas on Thursday.

 

So perhaps we should take a page from our furry friends. 

 

No, not your dog.

 

We're talking about squirrels.

 

Accustomed to the elements, squirrels are resorting their tried-and-true method for staying cool: Splooting.

 

Let us explain.

 

You probably have seen your dog do this move: Laying on their stomach, all fours sprawled across the floor. It's simple. It's relaxing. And it's pretty cute, too.

 

Now, we're in the stage of summer when even frenetic squirrels simply have to slow down and sploot.

 

WFAA Daybreak anchor Kara Sewell spotted a couple squirrels cooling off via the sploot.

 

 

Click on the link for the full story

[China]

Squirrel knocks out power to 10,000 customers in Virginia

 

Utility officials in Virginia said 10,000 customers, including at least two schools, were without power for over an hour when a squirrel came into contact with substation equipment.

 

Dominion Energy spokeswoman Bonita Billingsley Harris said in a Twitter post that the power outage began about 8:45 a.m. Wednesday when a squirrel entered a substation in Virginia Beach.

 

"The squirrel got between a circuit breaker and a transformer causing a power surge that made the transformer fail," Harris told WVEC-TV.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Cooked Crack]

Squirrel right now

[Forehead]

This seems to be a good spot for this story.  My wife and I bought our current home in August of 2020.  One of the first neighbors we met was a gray squirrel that we thought from a distance was a rabbit or something, because it was missing its tail.  We'd see this thing bouncing around our yard but it wasn't until we managed to get close to it that we figured out what it actually was.  I don't know if a fox almost got him and bit his tail off, a car ran it over, or he was born without it.

 

Anyway, because we don't care about squirrel feelings, we named him Stumpy.  Stumpy was around all summer, bouncing around, stealing from our blueberry and tomato plants.  In the Spring of 2021, he showed back up.  In particular, we had one really odd interaction where he was in a tree branch honking at us (I thought we had a goose somewhere) which was a sound I've never heard a squirrel make before.  He continued to steal from us but it was kind of cool seeing him bounce around and adapt to being tail-less.

 

Sadly, Stumpy didn't come back this spring/summer.  I don't know if he moved on to other foraging grounds, if a fox got him (we have a lot of foxes) or if he reached the end of his squirrel life naturally, but hopefully he's alive and happy somewhere, and stealing from someone else.

[China]

Scots man saves squirrel trapped down toilet in heroic rescue mission caught on camera

 

A Scots man has shared the moment he had to rescue a squirrel from his house after it got stuck down his toilet.

 

Glasgow man Mark Thorburn found the rodent in his bedroom on September 12 and, while attempting to chase it out of his house, the squirrel accidentally fell down the loo.

 

It wasn't the 24-year-old's normal Monday afternoon shenanigans and said he felt out of his depth when the animal got trapped.

 

"I had been out of the house for a few hours and when I came back I could hear rustling in my bedroom.

 

"I knew nobody else was home, so I thought someone must have broken in. I psyched myself up for a fight and when I went in, I saw the squirrel. It was definitely not who or what I was expecting to find in there."

 

Mark said he was trying to get the squirrel to go out of his bedroom window when it ran into the bathroom instead.

 

He added: "He fell down the toilet and couldn't get out. I was about to lift him and then I panicked that maybe I shouldn't. I Googled and it said you shouldn't because they can spread diseases and bite, so I didn't want to take any chances.

 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Red squirrel shuts down Scottish bakery for two days

 

A bakery in Scotland has been closed for two days due to the presence of an unusual burglar -- a protected red squirrel.

 

 

The Greggs bakery in Pitlochry was closed Sunday after a red squirrel was found living in the roof the previous day, and the squirrel was photographed through a window wandering around the closed business.

 

The bakery remained closed Monday after initial attempts to safely extract the squirrel were unsuccessful.

 

Specialists are working to safely extract the squirrel, which is a protected species in Scotland. Greggs officials said the store will be thoroughly cleaned before reopening once the animal is safely outside.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

[China]

 

[China]

What’s That In The Toilet? Virginia Couple Stunned By Swimming Animal

 

A Virginia couple got quite a surprise when entering their bathroom on Oct. 27.

 

The couple found a flying squirrel — at the time a swimming squirrel, rather — in their toilet, according to the Virginia Wildlife Management and Control.

 

 

“You know it’s gonna be another crazy day when a woman calls at approximately 7:30 a.m. and says her husband heard noise coming from the toilet this morning and when he lifted the lid, he saw an ‘unknown’ animal swimming around in it!” the agency captioned a post on Facebook.

 

Turns out, the “unknown” animal was a swimming squirrel.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Looks like it stopped swimming...

[China]

 

[SkinsFTW]

I used to feed the squirrels just to see what they would eat.

 

One time I had a box full of peanut butter wafer bars covered in chocolate. I can't remember what they are called but they were big and they loved them. At first I just broke off pieces and the squirrel would just stand there and eat it. If there was more than 1 squirrel they would chase each other around first and fight over it... Then I just started putting out the whole bar to see what they did. The squirrel didn't know what to do with it because he didn't want to just stand there eating it so he finally picked it up and ran off on 2 legs carrying it over his shoulder like a 2x4. 

 

Then I tried those stringy twizzlers that peel apart into a bunch of strings. The squirrels didn't know what to do with those and even try to eat them but they carried them up the tree and made a red twizzler nest out of them.

[China]

In China’s Chongqing, Police Squirrels Can Now Sniff out Drugs

 

Sniffer dogs in China now have competition.

 

Police in the southwestern city of Chongqing have successfully trained a batch of drug-sniffing squirrels, which they claim may perform even better than their canine colleagues.

 

According to domestic media reports, a police dog brigade in Chongqing has trained six squirrels that are now ready to take on even the most complicated of tasks, such as those in warehouses full of packages, tight corners, and even “places that are high up,” areas that drug sniffing dogs traditionally have trouble searching.

 

“A squirrel’s sense of smell is quite acute. It’s just that we now have more sophisticated methods of training them,” Yin Jin, who trained the new batch of sniffer squirrels, told domestic media.

 

 

The trainer also said that once they detect drugs, the squirrels will scratch the suspicious object in question to alert its handlers.

 

On social media, a video of the drug sniffer squirrels went viral Tuesday, gaining hundreds of thousands of views and likes. Some users even joked that the small rodents might be easier to maintain than dogs.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Spaceman Spiff]

Wife walks in my office this morning, we're talking and she opens up the curtains behind my desk.

 

"The squirrels are doing it!"

 

Caught on camera:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Captain Wiggles]

Love is in the air. 

 

Seen me a white squirrel the other day walking my dog around my folks neighborhood. I think I understand now how Captain Ahab felt. 🤪

[PokerPacker]

On 3/6/2023 at 11:33 AM, Spaceman Spiff said:

Wife walks in my office this morning, we're talking and she opens up the curtains behind my desk.

 

"The squirrels are doing it!"

 

Caught on camera:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "And I could see the squirrels and they were married"

[China]

I'm now in a battle with my local squirrels.  I had a suet feeder that they would regularly take down and open to steal the suet cakes.  So I got a better one that they couldn't get into (or so I thought).  They managed to get it on the ground and once there figured out how to open it.  So I secured it better to the tree and they couldn't open it while it's hanging (or so I thought).  It's wooden with metal staples holding in metal cage.  They managed to pull out the metal staples by chewing through the wood and then ripping off the metal cage.  I have now put it back together with stronger metal staples.  We'll see how long this lasts.  Devious ****s.

[China]

 

[Malapropismic Depository]

On 3/6/2023 at 11:33 AM, Spaceman Spiff said:

Wife walks in my office this morning, we're talking and she opens up the curtains behind my desk.

 

"The squirrels are doing it!"

 

Caught on camera:  

 

 

 

I hope you interrupted that act, and stopped them from re-producing.

Every little bit helps, from each of us citizens.

 

And you could take it a step further, by neutering/spaying them in the process.

[Malapropismic Depository]

A couple other options for de-population...

Fast forward to about 1:55 for this one...

 

 

 

 

 

[China]

How to stop squirrels from moving into your house and burning it down

 

Many people like having squirrels around to watch them scurry around in search of nuts and seeds. They are cute, fuzzy and at times comical. But when they find a way into your home, they become noisy, destructive pests.

 

There is no avoiding squirrels in Maine. And according to a state wildlife expert, there is no other animal in the state that wants to destroy your home more than a squirrel.

 

“Those dastardly dudes can be very destructive,” said Keel Kemper, biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. “There is no critter more out to burn your house down than a squirrel.”

 

Click on the link for the full article