It was a quiet day in the Kelley household earlier this week. Jana had put our children down for a nap and had settled in for her own nap downstairs when she heard small feet coming down our wooden stairs. She rose, prepared to catch the violater of nap rules trying to make their way down to see mommy. What follows is a series of texts I got at the office.
Jana text: “A mouse in our house. I saw it myself! Ahhh!
Me text: “Where did you see it?”
Jana text: “Basement. On the door. Too scared to leave the couch.”
When I got home a few hours later, things had settled down. We decided not to tell the kids about our little friend, thinking that it might prove harzardous for our sleep that night. Surely the mouse had found its way into some corner of the basement and we’d just put out a few traps and get it.
Then the action started.
I was sitting in the living with Jana when suddenly movement in the dark dining room caught her eye: “O my! O my! O my!” I turned around and saw the scurrying. But when the “mouse” jumped from the floor onto the couch where we were sitting and I saw that it wasn’t 2 inches but 8 inches long, we quickly realize that this was no ordinary mouse. Either it was a biologically enhanced soldier mouse, or…
It was a squirrel.
By this time, the excitment of furniture being thrown around brought Joshua running into the living room. Fortunately, he had already dressed for our upcoming Star Wars play time. He was wearing his Yoda outfit – a camoflauge vest held together with a black belt with his light saber clipped to the side.
“What’s going on in here?” Joshua queried. So I answered him as soberly as possible: ‘Buddy, we’ve got a problem. There is a squirrel in our house.”
Joshua responded not with words, but action. After a moment of thought, he slowly unclipped his light saber and extended it to full length holding it in front of him as if to declare, “Game on, rodent. Game on.”
Thus the great squirrel chase began. We started in Andi’s room, with Joshua standing guard at the door with his saber drawn. When I moved Andi’s bed, I heard Joshua yell, “There it is!” And he followed up his warning with a tremendous whacking of his light saber on the ground, no doubt in an attempt to bludgeon the household invader. We went though several more cycles like this until the squirrel slipped past the Jedi, making its way into Joshua’s room.
More craziness insued as we tore apart his room, flushing it out, and yet the squirrel (who by this time was garnering much respect from both Joshua and I for his ability to escape) slipped through underneath the door and into the bathroom. We rushed behind him, war cries filling the house, and slammed the bathroom door behind us. This time we stuff a towel underneath it and knew it was just a matter of time.
I flushed the squirrel from behind the toilet (ironically, I literally flushed him out by flushing the toilet) and he ran toward Joshua. He was ready. And with a few hard thumps on the floor around the squirrel, it jumped from the ground into the bathtub where we promptly shut the door and closed him in. High fives all around.
I eventually worked up the nerve to get in the tub with the squirrel and then trapped him with a trash can and plastic garbage bag. We took him out the woods near our house and released him into the wild. Great afternoon. Great adventure. Great story.
And for your viewing pleasure, I present actual video documentation of the squirrel, along with a movie clip that seemed particularly appropriate (language disclaimer on the movie clip. language is fine on our documentation).
This. Is. Awesome.
Dude I hate to tell you but that is a chipmunk! Hilarious! They are EVERYWHERE in your neck of the woods (great fodder for snakes, FYI).
So funny! What a good story to start our morning off with! We had a similar experience with a bird flying around our house, it was of course, while I was talking to the adoption agency in Alabama about adopting Mya. Surprisingly they still thought we were fit to have another child
. Love the description of your Jedi. With the whole thing could have been on video!
Miss you guys,
Kim
Whoa, whoa, whoa. A chipmunk? Are you sure, Dr. Tims? I certainly will print a retraction, but it didn’t look like a chipmunk to me. No markings on the back. I’ll give you the tail is short for a squirrel, but I thought it was too long for chipmunk.
I think that it needs the stripe…great story and video though!
That is hysterical! I’m so proud of your Jedi. I’m sure it’s something he’ll never forget—and remember himself as the hero.
pause it at the 26 second mark … is that a white stripe? that’s what told me “chipmunk.” Then again, the tail is longer and furrier … may very well be a confused pre-teen squirrel … LOL, hilarious. In reading the story I jumped to Lampoon’s in my head, only to scroll down and have you satisfy my experience with the clip.
Rob..I thought the exact same thing and laughed about it, looks like stripes in the video and the tail is pretty scrawny for a squirrel but I’ve seen the dogs play with squirrels and have them look like rats after a while, the tail seems to be particularly amusing to them….funny either way Michael!
Joshua stories get more fun all the time!
That is epic.
z
Fantastic story. Great line: “a biologically enhanced soldier mouse”.
We know squirrels ALL TO WELL!
I remember several Christmases ago when Dominic was practically “attacked” by one in our outside storage. It was NOT FUN and will live forever in our minds. HA!
Fantastic story, Michael! I will have to say that I think it’s a chipmunk as well. Unfortunately, our house has lots of experience with these little guys and we’ve caught 4 (this year) in the last 6 weeks. Looks like the “daddy” chipmunk though – he’s big! And those suckers are FAST. I’m highly impressed that you chose to transport it in a PLASTIC bag. I wouldn’t have dared!
Tanya – Probably best for all of us that the adreneline took over. It was only after the fact that I thought about things like “teeth” and “rabies.”
This is great!