Martins vs. Mr. Squirrel, Part 1

I will try to make this story as brief as possible, but they are quite a few funny details I cannot skip, so bear with me... Last summer, as we got settled into our cabin, the girls could hear something scurrying in their room..It was indeed a squirrel, but he was in the wall, NOT in their room! They freaked out, and we quickly assured them, he was harmless! We found a small hole on the outside of the house, that we knew was his front door, so we let him be. After all, we are in his territory, we have at least a dozen pine trees on our property! Forward to Summer 2010...We arrive last week to discover, Mr. Squirrel has made a small hole in the wall of our loft...okay, now he's messing with our territory! He had not entered the room, just made a nice project for our list of home repairs! grrr... We go outside to realize, Mr. Squirrel has now created a rather large hole as his front door!

So out comes our favorite repairman, Uncle Dale. The war is on. Dale patches up the inside drywall, and then climbs two stories and attaches a square of metal over the hole, and insists, that'll keep him out! Dale leaves, we sit back and relax...but nooo...Erica runs inside to get something, and comes out yelling, "I can hear him running around!!!" and we realize we have now trapped the squirrel inside! Dale had left the ladder to do some touch up painting, so Bill decides to climb up there to let him out~ meanwhile, Erica and I stand by to watch, and see Mr. Squirrel peeking his head out of a knothole in the wood, just a few feet from Bills ladder! So Bill unscrews the metal, and we wait...we suggest Bill goes inside and pound on the wall, while we stay at our lookout post for signs off our resident squirrel! Within a few minutes, he pokes his head out, looks around, and climbs on the roof. He stares, he glares. He lets me take numerous photos of him. He looks irritated, and off he goes... Bill climbs the ladder again (as I hold my breath) and closes the door for good!

Happy with our success, we sit back, and relax...but not Mr. Squirrel! Within an hour, he is back...he is watching Dale work, he is hanging on our fence, staring up at his front door. At one point, he scales the side of the house and peeks in the kitchen window! He hangs from the screen in our kitchen and just stares. We are being stalked by him! LOL! We laugh and talk about how long it will take him to find another way in....And sure enough, the next morning, Bill finds a pile of sawdust along the eave of our roof...and he is back! Last night, Erica went to bed saying, "I hear him Mommy, is he going to bed too?" I said "Yes, he is going to bed too, so just go to sleep!"

Current score: Martins 1, Mr. Squirrel 2