I love animals. Seriously. So the squirrel story starts out like this...:
I just got some flying squirrels. "Why?" You ask.. Because. So, I just got two flying squirrels. They are my newest and most favorite of all my pets... except my dog. I love getting animals that I've never had before. I learn all about them and love them all to pieces.
If you've ever had sugar gliders before you know what I'm going to tell you. Sugar are flying marsupials that look like squirrels... but their not. They are nocturnal like squirrels, but make all sorts of noises and smell pretty musky. I've had them before.
I saw an ad on Craigslist, (my addiction), for flying squirrels and immediately assumed they were sugars. I fell to the task of ever so politely emailing the seller and correcting their error. Turns out I was incorrect and they WERE flying squirrels. Haha. After doing research on the buggers, I came to the not too slow realization that I MUST have them as my latest and greatest pets.
Night one:
I am very enthusiastic to have new friends and immediately take them out of their cage and holding them so very gently take their "nest" hut into the bathroom to play. I'm almost giddy. I am very careful to put a towel under the door so as to hinder their escape into a very large house. The toilette seat is down, even the drains are plugged... just in case. I RELEASE my new friends! Oh, the joy. They don't bite and one takes off romping away. Flying squirrels romp it seems, not walk or run... but romp like a hopping kangaroo. I love them!!
I just got some flying squirrels. "Why?" You ask.. Because. So, I just got two flying squirrels. They are my newest and most favorite of all my pets... except my dog. I love getting animals that I've never had before. I learn all about them and love them all to pieces.
If you've ever had sugar gliders before you know what I'm going to tell you. Sugar are flying marsupials that look like squirrels... but their not. They are nocturnal like squirrels, but make all sorts of noises and smell pretty musky. I've had them before.
I saw an ad on Craigslist, (my addiction), for flying squirrels and immediately assumed they were sugars. I fell to the task of ever so politely emailing the seller and correcting their error. Turns out I was incorrect and they WERE flying squirrels. Haha. After doing research on the buggers, I came to the not too slow realization that I MUST have them as my latest and greatest pets.
Night one:
I am very enthusiastic to have new friends and immediately take them out of their cage and holding them so very gently take their "nest" hut into the bathroom to play. I'm almost giddy. I am very careful to put a towel under the door so as to hinder their escape into a very large house. The toilette seat is down, even the drains are plugged... just in case. I RELEASE my new friends! Oh, the joy. They don't bite and one takes off romping away. Flying squirrels romp it seems, not walk or run... but romp like a hopping kangaroo. I love them!!
They are new to me so have not named themselves yet, but for this story I shall call them Gaz and Zim. Zim is now off romping around the floor seeming to collect all the dust I never realized was there, with her tail. Gaz is having a hard time leaving the hut and I let her stay inside it... after all, I have Zim to play with. Zim bounces all over the bathroom... she bounced past the toilette, past the magazines, past the tub and comes to a stop by the sink.
I don't think any of you are very proficient in sink manufacturing so let me explain something to you. There is a place in your sink cabinet that is a section of the cabinet that the builders decided not to finish. These brainiacs left a hole 3inches by 3 inches UNDERNEATH the thing between the wall and the part of the cabinet that you can store things in. On BOTH sides. Would it really have cost THAT much more to close up the cabinet? Hmmm?? Soooo, holes...
Zim now looks in amazement at her newest find. Crap. I'm on the other side of the room and watch helplessly as she bounces up and out of sight.. Double crap. She's gone. I'm left to wonder if the cabinet she is how a part of goes all the way around and past pipes that lead into our house. Crap. Jason will be very upset with me if I've now infested out home with squirrels. Crap crappity crap crap crap. What do I do?
Nothing. I can't reach up there.. it's too small. After a wait to see if Zim grows tired of her new surroundings and come bounding out to invest a bit of love into our new relationship. She doesn't. Now what? I decide to put Gaz into a pouch and use Zim's hut home to lure her out. I'm in the process of delicately placing Zim into the pouch when she slips away and bounds straight to the cabinet and directly up the hole. Really?? What? Was she peeking out of the hut and watching where Zim went? How did she know to go there immediately? Gone.. Two flying squirrels gone. Now what?
I'll wait them out. I'm resourceful. I place the "house" hut close to the hole... but not too close. They will grow tired of their new playground and eventually come out to rest in their happy hut. Right? It's 8PM and Jason doesn't get off work till 9. He won't be home till almost 10. I can wait. I have time. I start praying.
"Dear Lord,
Lord, I'd really appreciate it if you'd help my new lill buddies come out of the cabinet and go into the hut. I'll wait. I want to thank you in advance for their safe return. You've returned animals to be in the past and I have absolute faith that you'll do it again. Amen."
I actually put in some scriptures binding the devil from operating in my life and the lives of my new little friends too. Can't be too careful.
So I wait...
After a few exploratory romps.. by only one.. I need both, Zim.. I'm going to guess, bounds over to the hut. YESS!! She'll go in and then Gaz will follow! Zim watches me cautiously while bundling up some bedding to move it out of the way so she can enter her hut. She blinks... I'm frozen.. don't mind me.. go on little buddy... go to your home!! She takes her little cotton bundle ball and hops back up into the hole...
WHAT?? NO!! Her home is in the hut!! NOT THE HOLE!!Holy CRAP!! I've been sitting in the bathroom for over an hour on the hard tile floor just to come to the stinkin realization that my little friends are just goint to happily bring their bedding into my bathroom cabinet and live there!! Why didn't you stop her you say... She's friggin FAST!! That's why! I'm on the far other side of the room and she's literally one hop away from hut to hole. Plus their friggin FAST!!
Time for plan B. Keep in mind my house is a rental. Ever resourceful I get a flat heard screwdriver and start to pry at that stupid panel. I'm also praying that there are no pipes for my little friends to run away in. Stupid friends. After chipping off some of the counter top in attempts to remove the panel... it finally comes off. VICTORY!! And there are my tiny friends.. huddled in the far corner.. nestled comfortably in their bedding. Jerks.
There is another smaller adventure getting them from the niche back into their cage... but that is where they end up.. For now....
Thought for the night... Provided by my sister Jennifer:
Flying squirrels are very much a rodent.. Similar to hamsters, which is Jennifer's speciality. It turns out squirrels have a tiny little brain that can only lock onto one thought at a time. When they lock onto that one thought.. Watch out! (And don't try to wait one out.)
