Squirrel!

Last winter we kept hearing a scratching sound between the floors. I thought it was a mouse, but the queen swore it was something bigger. We put out sticky pads along the top of the wall in the basement. A few days later I heard a chirping sound like a bird. I looked at the sticky pad and sure enough there was a squirrel on it. Now came the problem of how to get a live mad squirrel out of the house. My first thought was just to scrape the whole thing into a box and take it outside and shoot it, but if it fell off the pad in the process and climbed up my arm I would have been a little upset. So, I took a BB gun (I wasn't about to shoot a .22 in the house) and had to shoot it in the head about 15 times to kill it. Now I've squirrel hunted my whole life and enjoy it, but this I did not enjoy. I hate to see an animal suffer, but I saw no other way out. When you are hunting, or in this case exterminating, you should always kill the animal as quickly and painlessly as possible. Now, I was raised never to kill an animal unless it was to be eaten or was some kind of pest, like a mouse. But I didn't find eating an animal that had been living off pine and insulation to be all that appetizing, so I just threw it away.

The middle one, or spider monkey as I call him, holding the fresh kill.

 We found where it had gotten in the house and patched the hole. The next day another squirrel was scratching where we had patched. Now it was on. I live in a neighborhood and am not supposed to shoot guns, but I live at the very back, surrounded by woods and the only people who could hear me don't care. But, just to be safe I went and bought some .22 shorts to make less sound. I loaded up and went for a squirrel hunt from the back porch. I got one on the first shot and they haven't bothered us since. Now this one I felt would be okay to eat, so I skinned it and cut it up. I used some Academy fish fry to coat all the parts and fried it in a skillet on my grill outside. It was great, and we haven't had any more squirrel trouble.

The fish fry turned out pretty good.