A doggies-squirrel adventure

This hasn't been the best week for our cars. The STi got rear ended and the Miata got hit while parked. I took the STi for an estimate yesterday afternoon, and I took the Miata to the same place for another estimate this morning while DJ was napping.

DJ woke up before I got home, so Daddy was on duty. When I got home, I found a VERY thankful Steve that I was home. Usually Steve is calm cool and collected when it comes to babysitting DJ, so then I took a look around at the situation.

DJ was on one side of the gate (in the living room) happily playing with his toys. Steve and the doggies, on the other hand, were on the other side of the gate, with paper towels on the floor. And then Steve said, "The big dog threw up. And go look at what's outside on the deck!"

Uh-oh.

"What I don't know is if they killed it or if it was already dead and they just brought it back."

Oh fabulous.

Sure enough, a dead squirrel was JUST outside our deck storm door. FABULOUS. Guaranteed our little "retriever" dog, Napoleon, brought that home, whether he killed it or not. The assumption here is that IO threw up on the kitchen floor (thankfully it's tile for easy clean up!) because he "ate" squirrel. However, he's also been fond of eating baby grass which is also known for making dogs vomit. And he's done that at least once a week for the last 3 weeks.

"So which do you want, Baby Duty or Squirrel Cleanup?" asks Steve.

I look at both dogs, who are looking at me expectantly to let them into the living room. That's when I look at Napoleon a little more carefully and realize that he's been rolling in something, too.

"I got Squirrel Cleanup," I concede.

Step 1. Clean up floor in kitchen. After I get the major mess off the floor, I pull out the disinfectant wipes and wipe the areas, too.

Step 2. Clean up the squirrel. Steve asks, "What do we do with it? Put it out back on the other side of the fence?" "Or it would go in the trash...." I said. Good thing we're car nuts because we keep latex gloves around a lot for working on the cars. I got myself a pair of gloves, 3 plastic grocery bags, and out to the deck I go. I'm not even going to describe the squirrel except to say that it looked "intact" i.e. no dog actually ate any of it, thankfully.

I steel myself.... and reach down to pick it up. For as many birds that would hit my parents' big picture front windows and break their necks, I never actually disposed of any of them. So here is my first incident, and..... yeah, it was stiff. That tells us the dogs didn't kill it, at least.

We wouldn't have been surprised if the dogs had killed it because they were mere INCHES from catching a very stupid squirrel on Thursday afternoon. The squirrel didn't think that the dogs were a threat. It ran, but not for a tree, and then realized it was in trouble. It was lucky that it had the fence to jump up on and that the dogs didn't expect it to do that because that was the only reason it got away.

So the squirrel went into the plastic bags, tied very tightly, in multiple layers, and then tossed into our trash bag which immediately went out to the trash cans that go to the curb.

Step 3. (thought I was done? ha!) Give both dogs a bath. Thank goodness for treats because those dogs will follow me anywhere with treats in hand. Napoleon got a bath first, then IO. Both dogs are very put off by this, despite the treats dolled at the end of the baths! Currently, they are still corralled in the kitchen, but I think the outcasts will be reunited with the family momentarily. ;-)