Squirrel

Today Bekah and I came home from the park to hear a weird splashing noise in what we thought was our empty home. My adrenaline got pumping as I realized that we were not the only ones in the house and I ran down the hall shouting, "Who is in here?!" My answer was some more aggravated splashing coming from the bathroom. I went in and looked for water leaking down from the apartment above, but saw nothing. I then heard the splashing again. Coming from inside the closed toilet. WHAT??? "Is this a prank? Who's here?" No answer except more splashing. Realizing that there was no way this could be a prank, I knelt by the toilet and peeked through the crack, still doubting the validity of the experience. I couldn't see anything, but it dawned on me that Garrett was not expected home for another 6 hours and I was going to have to open the toilet to use it before then. Also, would this thing eventually be able to get out? Would it pose some threat to Rebekah and I? Was it too big to flush? I called Garrett and he didn't answer, so I called Heather.

While describing the situation to her, I continued peering through the crack when all of a sudden I heard myself shriek, "It's a mouse! It's a mouse! I saw whiskers and a paw! It's trying to get out! What if it gets out? What do I do? How do I get rid of it? Why didn't Garrett answer? What do I do? It's going to get out!" (I may have been a bit hysterical. A bit.) Heather told me to flush it. She said, "If it's a mouse, you don't want it getting loose in your house, and mice are small. It should flush easily." I then told her that my toilet is pretty lame and probably couldn't swallow half a mouse, but I gave it a try anyway.

After the noise of the toilet ceased, I listened to the silence from within and decided to be brave enough to peek inside. I did so an realized this was no ordinary mouse. It was BIG! "It's a rat! It's a rat! There's a rat infestation in my house! My house is infested! What if it get's out? I can't flush it!!!!!" (Maybe I was borderline crazy by this point.) Sweet Heather calmed me down and gave me the courage to look again and when I lifted the lid a second time, I realized I was looking at a full-grown-completely-alive-never-going-to-be-flushed-down-my-whimpy-toilet-SQUIRREL!!!!! Uh, weird.

So I hung up and called animal control. No answer, so I left a message. Just then Garrett called, so I put Bekah in the car, we picked him up, and then we waited outside for him to chuck the squirrel out. And we waited. Then I saw the light in Bekah's room turn on. I went to the window and saw Garrett. Chasing a wet squirrel. Around my baby's room. (GROAN) They ran into my bedroom next and I decided it was time to get in on the action. So Garrett and I chased that squirrel around and around and around our bedroom till it ran out the door and into the living room. Fearing this would never end, I decided to just watch again. Luckily, I stood in the hallway so that when Garrett chased the squirrel my way it did a double take and ran the opposite way, right out the front door!! It knocked over a rake, jumped onto the neighbors grill, turned to give us one last look, and jumped into the tree.

That was easy.