This is what happened…
Mister and I were in the rumpus room, with the World Cup on the telly. I thought I heard something hit the pool’s water, through the open door, but didn’t get up to check. I went about my bid-ness, and a few minutes later we heard something around the corner, inside the house. That sound triggered my curiosity and I did get up to check. Just as I rounded the corner, I saw it: a wet squirrel.
If you’ve ever seen “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” you have surely chuckled at the rogue squirrel scene. As I’ve seen that movie about a jillion times, I turned toward Mister (still seated in the rumpus room) and yelled, “Squirrel!” The little guy wasn’t too happy with me and appeared to feel trapped back in that corner of the room. While my first instinct was to run crazily through the house (much like the gang in “Christmas Vacation”), I opted instead for figuring out how to get the danged critter out of the house before he tore it – or us – apart. I told Mister to grab his keys and go around outside to open the door by the corner where the squirrel was trapped. As Mister was putting the keys in that door’s lock, the squirrel got scared enough to go back out the open door through which he’d entered. And that was that episode of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.”
I didn’t grab the camera quickly enough to snap the little rodent, but I did get a pic of his little wet tracks.
This was a new brush with nature for us. I’ve been trying to figure out the critter’s motive. I mean, we just don’t get squirrels coming down into our yard, as it’s a concrete jungle right now and the squirrels seem far more interested in the neighbors’ trees. It occurred to me that the little guy accidentally fell into the pool and was only stopping by the house to find a towel. Or maybe he’s a soccer fan and heard the distinct game-calling of the World Cup. Or maybe he’s just tweaked.
No matter the reason, I’m hoping that squirrel is done with us. I don’t mind watching an indoor squirrel scene in a holiday movie, but I do not want to live it, thank-you-very-much.