The Squirrel and the Lindt Balls
About two weeks ago, Britney was walking from the produce room to the back room. To get from the former to the latter, one has to walk through our hardware/Carhartt section, where there is a small alcove (previously full of Muck boots; I moved them three days ago to the opposite shelving). In said alcove, the floor is so old that there is actually a few inches of clearance between it and the wall. This is more than enough room for a squirrel.
After hearing a muffled squeal from Britney, I ran out from the back and she informed me of the critter that ran from the breach in the floor towards the produce room. Neil (the store handyman for the past 40 years) shoved some boards through the gap to hinder more squirrels. But, our little guy was still in the store.
Days later, and we noticed rustling in one of the walls in the back room. Sure enough, there he was, peeking out of the hole he created with insulation in his mouth. Fast forward two weeks, and multiple traps later, and he still hadn’t been caught.
He had, however, fully devastated our supply of Lindt chocolate balls all the way at the front of the store. This squirrel had expressed his love of the salted milk chocolate ones especially, and after Esme had had to pick up over fifty wrappers two days ago, we had had enough.
After this weeks-long debacle, I finally received a snapchat from Hallie of a particular red squirrel in a particular Hav-a-hart trap. When I arrived at the scene, she informed me that Hank had taken it to a local farm to release him. We finally successfully captured our squirrel!!
I have today and tomorrow off as my “weekend,” and then Thursday I’ll be back to hear about what I’ve missed. Until then!