Tiny squirrel

We were awakened at dawn by a loud scrabbling noise in the (closed) wood stove. It stopped after I was fully awake.
I checked the fireplace after breakfast to find a tiny squirrel at the window. I opened the door, but he ran back up the flue. After an hour, he tried to hide in the left rear corner. I slowly opened the door and grabbed him with a towel. I released him in the shrubs on the deck. He was a bit dazed at first, but in a few seconds he ran down the rock wall to the path going to the basement, across the path and up the next wall into the Viburnums next to our room. I lost track of him, but he was headed to the Aspens. He was only 6 inches long, half of that was tail.
I wonder if the flue fence dislodged when the cleaners were out last week.
Drama: my best friend!

Deep snow: Gambol 1 Squirrel 0

That boy can hunt!  Gambol improved the squirrel gene pool this morning.  The snow is 2.5-3 feet deep. Little squirrel legs can't swim in snow as fast as long Gambol legs.  If he had stayed in the tree, he'ds have had a chance, but in the snow, not so much.  Funny thing though:  Gambol wasn't interested in giving his prize to me.  We'll have to re-think that.
Meanwhile back on he driveway, Kilo was howling at a squirrel in a tree over the chicken coop, and Buddy was cheering Gambol on.

More deadly bite

Gambol 2, Squirrels 0.  This time no extra bites and no ER visits.

On the way to the meadow

My big excitement began as I started walking the dogs down to the meadow.  Right out in front of the house, across from the driveway, is our birdfeeder.  The feeder attracts both birds and squirrels, and that makes Gambol and Buddy eager to race out of the house to the feeder to chase the offending critters away.  The squirrels are pretty adept at running away and up into the trees before the dogs can get to them, but there was a glaze of ice on top of the 2 inches of snow and this time the squirrels were having a hard time gaining traction.  The dogs were able to head off one squirrel and Gambol was able to catch it before it got away and tried to climb up a nearby tree.  Apparently Gambol injured the squirrel’s leg and it was not able to stay on the tree, so it hopped back on the ground and the chase was on, again.  Gambol chased the squirrel back and forth a couple of times between two trees; each time the squirrel was able to get up the tree, it jumped back down to the ground.  Finally Gambol caught the squirrel and gave it several hard shakes.  
I assumed he had killed the squirrel and called Gambol over to give me the squirrel.  Gambol was proud to trot over with his head held high, the squirrel in his mouth.  When Gambol was at my side, I could see that the squirrel was still alive, so I tried to get the squirrel out of Gambol’s mouth to dispatch the squirrel.  I got Gambol to give me the squirrel, but as I took it out of his mouth, the squirrel bit me on the left index finger, a 0.25 inches long, 0.25 inches deep puncture wound.  Squirrels’ teeth are very sharp!  Gambol is current on his rabies shots, but I'm not, so off I went for a 4 hour adventure at the local Emergency Room for a tetanus shot, to the dogs' vet to drop off the now deceased squirrel for rabies testing at the county Board of Health (because of their small size, squirrels usually die quickly of rabies, so the risk of getting rabies from a squirrel is very low). However in an abundance of caution, since it is my ass on the line, we are going to have the squirrel tested. 
Finally, I had to stop off at Target to get a prescription for an antibiotic that I have to take for the next 5 days. Whew, that blew a hole in my afternoon!  

Update:
On Tuesday I had an exchange with the PA Department of Health regarding my wildlife bite report filed at the hospital.  They repeated the information I got at the hospital Emergency Room that transmission of rabies from squirrels is very rare, but it was a good idea to get the animal tested, just to be sure.  The vet told me they would be sending the squirrel for testing on Tuesday, so the results should be available in 24-48 hours.  The Department of Health will contact me (or, if I get the test results first, I will contact them) just to make sure everyone is on the same page.  With any luck, I should be assured that I don’t need the rabies shot series by Thursday.  

Update 2:

Got the mailed report from the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Pennsylvania Animal Diagnostic Laboratory System, The Pennsylvania State University (PADLS-PSU).   With the negative results, no rabies shot series for me.  Hurray.

 

Gambol 1; Squirrel 0

A very proud boy brought me an almost dead squirrel this afternoon. He had to run around to find me because I was in the chicken coop.  He only wanted to show me, not really give me, the prize.  But I was prepared with liver treats in my pocket.  Liver treat trump hairy squirrels all the time.

Squirrel 1; Gambol 0

Just went out for our morning constitutional and as usual, Gambol ran directly out to the birdfeeder to chase the gathered squirrels.  He chased one off to the right of the feeder. I heard some squeaking, and sure enough Gambol had one in his mouth, much like a squeaky toy.  I called him to come to me and as he started to come to me he dropped and picked up the squirrel several times, shaking it as he picked it up.  I could see the squirrel wasn’t quite dead, so I was going to finish it off once he brought it to me.  For some reason Gambol turned around and headed off at full speed with the squirrel in his mouth—it looked as if he was headed after another squirrel.  As he was running he dropped the squirrel out of his mouth and the squirrel immediately ran up the nearest tree.  I noticed that Gambol’s nose looked bloody. I called him over and saw the tip of his nose (the leather) was covered in blood.  At no time did Gambol yelp or whine, so he was not hurting.  I sprinkled some snow on his nose and he continued to lick it, and he cleaned it off so I could see that he got one bite or scratch right above the leather in the middle of his snout.  When we got back home after our walk, the bleeding had pretty much stopped, so I sprinkled some alum on it and it now looks like it has stopped bleeding.

When we were headed back towards the house he ran off to check the bird feeder area for any laggard squirrels, so he isn’t deterred.

He’ll have to learn that it takes more vigorous action to kill a squirrel than a field mouse. The old softy!

Correction:  Gambol actually did kill the squirrel. And he has a nasty gash on his nose to prove it.  He just ran off to catch another before giving it to Paul. They found the carcass after some crows mauled it. Hawk friends:  pay attention to how the dog does it.

Squirrel

Gambol brought me a dead but warm squirrel on Saturday early morning, a very nice present because I know how much they mean to him.  Then Sunday night he caught fur and has a bite on his mouth to prove it.  I watched this tussle;  Gambol was within 3 feet of the dang-blasted mammal 3 times but just couldn't quite do the deed.
Asparagus and ham fritatta planned for dinner but just as I opened the egg carton the electricity went out (and the generator went on but the stove isn't on that line) so we had the fritatta minus the egg.
Chicks are outside permanently now.  They are snuggled in the chicken tractor with a nice load of shavings. It was 65 last night and even though it rained a bit, they seemed happy with their space.
Easter flowers are blooming at the Barony.

 May apples (Podophyllum peltatum), neither in May nor apples but a sure sign of spring.

 Grape hyacinth (Muscari)

 Virginia Blue Bells (Mertensia)

 Daffodils (Narcissus)

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)