Squirrel!

I stayed home from work yesterday since I only slept for about two hours the before. My entire body felt like it was wired. Bizarre. Anyway, it kept me from sleeping and there was no way I could function at work on such little sleep. At some point in the afternoon, still deliriously tired and unable to sleep, I decided to take my Kindle outside to read in the gorgeous sunshine. Perhaps laying on a comfy couch outside would be enough to help me doze off.

I grabbed my book, a drink, and the dog. It had been raining a lot recently so the couch cushions were stacked up in the corner of the patio to keep dry. I put my stuff down on the table and headed over to get the first few cushions. Right before I grabbed one of the over-sized cushions a squirrel skittered out from behind a pillow and scrambled up to the top of it. He kind of looked at me while I was looking at him and we both panicked.

I backed up to give him room, and he ran over to the other corner of the patio on top of the deck box. By this time Toby had started paying attention. He sauntered in the direction of the patio to see what was going on, then took off when he caught sight of the squirrel. The squirrel dove back behind the cushions with Toby in pursuit, then scrambled up the glass door all the way to the handle before screeching his way back down to the patio. Toby was staring at the cushions waiting for his lunch to come out, and I was on the sidewalk about 10 feet away watching in fascination.

After a moment with no sound a tiny gray blur leapt up the brick side of the house and clawed his way up to the porch overhang where he couldn’t go any further. He scrambled to the left and then along the underside of the roof. I could only guess where he was because of the squeaking and claws scraping on metal. He was making such a fuss. Toby was patiently sitting among the couch cushions, staring at the squirrel in anticipation. Suddenly, a loud squeal and clawing, signaled the  reappearance of the flailing rodent as he fell straight down into Toby’s opened mouth.

The poor squirrel was held fast by his belly which left all four clawed legs and his razor-sharp teeth free to scratch and bite at Toby’s face. I’ve never seen my dog so calm. He just held on to the squirrel’s belly without moving or flinching. It was bizarre! The squirrel was spitting and screeching, making such a terrible noise, and looked completely capable of taking out Toby’s eyes or at least slicing up his snout.

I yelled my dog’s name sharply which was all he needed to drop the squirrel. Too late, I realized the only direction the squirrel had to run was straight towards me. I had a brief flash of the squirrel running straight to me, scrambling up my body and clawing at my head in its terror. I turned, jumped two stairs, and clambered up onto the metal patio chair, my knee bashing into the sharp arm on the way up, squealing like a little girl the whole way. The squirrel came straight towards where I had been standing and dodged to the right, ran up the fence and into a neighboring tree, chittering and fussing the entire way.

Toby was still unfazed, like it was a typical day for him, but my heart was hammering and my mind was going a million miles a minute. I jumped down out of my perch and ran over to see how many chunks Toby was missing from his face. Surprisingly, he only had a small speck of blood on his face, probably from the squirrel’s razor sharp teeth. My poor baby had just saved my life from a terrified squirrel had been unintentionally cornered.

I called the vet to make sure there was nothing I needed to do with my crazy dog. He was up to date on his rabies, and had been giving the “farm dog” shot to keep him from catching diseases from rodents. He started getting that shot when he was two years old because he was an incredible squirrel catcher. So gross. Yesterday I was so thankful that I keep his shots up and keep in touch with the vet. It kept this ten seconds of insanity from turning into a real nightmare. Now, to get rid of the squirrel smell – bath time!

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