Listening to Squirrel Holes
Feb 22nd 2008Jeremy MyersLife
For the past six weeks, I’ve had an all-out war with a family of squirrels. Sometime last fall, or over the winter, they decided to make our home their home. We certainly enjoy opening our home for guests, but a squirrel family, though cute, are unwelcome guests.
When I first discovered the holes they were chewing through our house, my thought was to get out my gun and shoot them. That’s what I would do if I were still in Montana. But being in a suburb of Dallas, I thought that the neighbors wouldn’t appreciate me shooting a gun next door, and so went down to Home Depot to get some poison. As it turns out, it’s illegal to poison squirrels in Texas. Instead, I was supposed to use to a live trap to capture them. So I went to the Irving Animal Shelter to get my trap.
I caught the first squirrel in about two days. I used apples and peanut butter as bait. Then I reset the trap and waited. For a week, I never heard another squirrel, so I figured they left. I returned the trap and got up on our treacherously steep roof to patch the holes, then went into the attic and put screen over the other holes.
The very next day, I heard the squirrels chewing new holes to get out of our house. Since I had closed off their exit doors, they decided to make new ones. So I went back down to the shelter, got the trap again, set it, and caught another squirrel, then waited and waited, and not hearing anything, patched the new holes, and returned the trap.
The very next day, I heard the squirrels chewing new holes to get out of our house. Since I had closed off their exit doors, they decided to make new ones. So I went back down to the shelter, got the trap again, set it, and caught another squirrel, then waited and waited, and not hearing anything, patched the new holes, and returned the trap. (Yes, I meant to repeat the last paragraph. Do you see a pattern here?)
Two days ago, I got up on the roof and through some super-sleuthing, figured out where the nest was, and tore part of the roof off to get at it. I spent an hour or more pulling nesting out of my roof. In the process I found two dead squrrels. (I didn’t kill them, honest!) Today, I patched that hole in the roof and will return the trap to the Animal Shelter. Tomorrow, I fully expect to hear squirrels chewing holes in my house.
Why am I sharing all this? I believe that God wants to teach us things through nature. It is, of course, one of the four primary ways God teaches us things (the other three being Scripture, conscience, and other people). These squirrels have taught me that when a door is closed, sometimes you just have to chew a new one. If you throw up your hands in defeat and say “God’s not opening any doors for me!” you’ll starve to death.
I’m facing a time in my life right now when all the doors seem closed, and have been wondering why God doesn’t open one for me to walk through. “I’ve got a family to feed!” I tell Him. But I’m beginning to think that by listening to squirrels chew holes in my house, God is telling me He doesn’t want me to go through any of those doors I’ve been knocking on. Instead, He wants me to chew a new one. I’m excited to see where I come out, but I hope the owner of the house doesn’t get too mad…
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bullet on 22 Feb 2008 at 3:46 pm #
Your optimism is really unbelievable. First you suffer this great injustice and now squirrels are CHEWING HOLES IN YOUR HOUSE, but you take a lesson from it and keep going.
I’ve been through my share of hardship, but my anger and despair generally just fade as I move on. You seem determined to willfully force that negative energy in a positive direction. I admire that.
Oh, and cats do very well in controlling indoor squirrels. Put a cat in the attic (or give one access to it) and the squirrels will move on to easier pickings. I speak from experience. After Katrina there were many holes in my roof and quite a bit of wildlife found its way in. When my neighbors came back with their three (!) cats, everything disappeared.
Jeremy Myers on 22 Feb 2008 at 7:32 pm #
Bullet,
A cat! That is a great idea, and my three girls will love it. We might just do that.
And to tell you the truth, I have to do everything I can to stay optimistic, because I’m too afraid of the alternatives…but then, I haven’t gone through Katrina. I can’t imagine how difficult that must have been.
By the way, did you hear they do have a t-shirt for that book? Check the comments section again, and there is a link posted there.
yipeng on 22 Feb 2008 at 7:53 pm #
Needed to hear this, thanks! :]
Jeremy Myers on 23 Feb 2008 at 12:11 pm #
Yipeng,
Thanks for the comment. I checked out your blog and really appreciated the post called “Preparing the Harvest.” Keep up the good work over there.
David Annabell on 24 Feb 2008 at 2:41 pm #
The thing I can’t believe this that you have a constitutional right to bear arms, but you can’t poison squirrels!
I think you should have gone with your first instinct, and used the shotgun.
Jeremy Myers on 24 Feb 2008 at 4:27 pm #
David,
That’s very funny. It is kind of ironic, isn’t it? What are gun laws in New Zealand?
David Annabell on 25 Feb 2008 at 1:59 pm #
I don’t even know the specifics of applying for a firearms permit. The vast majority of people in the city don’t own guns.
If someone gets shot, it is quite big news here.
From a newspaper article quoted on http://guncontrol.org.nz/ ;
“Yet, figures collected by the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council show relatively few gun-related deaths: 48 in 2003 and 55 in 2002. The Public Health Association previously reported an average of 80 gun deaths and 65 hospital admissions a year. The statistics are dominated by suicides, which account for 80 to 90 per cent of gun-related deaths; the balance is typically hunting accidents, accidental shootings, police shootings and homicides.
Compare this to the United States’ 30,136 gun-related deaths in 2003 – nearly eight times higher per capita than New Zealand’s figures – and our reason for being satisfied becomes more clear.”
I’m pretty sure we don’t permit squirrels to use guns.