It took me a long time to admit that I had a squirrel problem. When I was young and in college I was an animal right’s activist, so I had a hard time accepting that it was really an issue and that an animal could be anything less than friendly. Back in the day I would have walked into a field of bears and expected them not to hurt me, but now (I hope) I’m a little bit more educated than that. I watched the squirrels jump from the tree onto my roof and crawl into the eve more than once, but what’s mine is theirs as my younger self would’ve said.
I think I was trying to reconnect with my past, liberal self when I ignored the scratching and other various sounds from the attic that would make their way to my ears. I don’t know what I was thinking when I waved off the horrible smell of urine and bought a new Glade air-freshener instead, but I do know what I was thinking when I opened the attic door and saw (and smelled) exactly what I had been letting happen in my house. The first thing that I thought was a little explicit, but the next was that I, Susanne Richards, had a squirrel problem.
When I called Allstate Animal Control about the issue, my inner teenager screamed ‘Human freedom, animal rights, one voice, one fight’ like I used to chant in college, but I pushed her down and continued with the process. Pretty soon I had a technician in my home setting up traps, then he was back a few days later to remove the squirrels and help me clean up the mess. After all was said and done, my inner activist was silent and pleased. No squirrels were hurt and my house didn’t smell like an outhouse. Allstate Animal Control fixed my squirrel problem, and saved my attic while they were at it!