Monday, December 18, 2006

Flying Squirrel Saga

I'm glad to see that people have taken an interest in Hammy, our flying squirrel. Your posts encourage us to keep writing. :)

Well, I'm sure you are wondering what has been happening this past week in our house.

On Tuesday evening, Adam's trap finally worked! Here's a picture of the trap, minus the animal inside. He had to do some tampering with it, becuase at first the animal was still getting into it and taking the peanut M & M's without setting it off.






(He's a genius by the way! I would've never been able to come up with something like this! It's hard to see how it works in the pictures, but really, it's amazing!)




So, we caught the little guy and were debating what to do with him. We left him in the cat carrier, put that in a Rubbermaid container, and then put it in the back of Adam's truck overnight. But in that same evening, we heard yet more scurrying around in our walls!!! Hammy had a friend apparently! After feeling victorious at the capture of Hammy, we know felt defeated in knowing that our work was not done.

On Wednesday, we decided to set him free in the forests of Kuyper College. Here's a picture of him prior to his release:


He had actually begun to chew a small hole in the Rubbermaid container! A few more hours in there and he would have set himself free!


It wasn't until Saturday morning that we managed to catch Hammy's friend, which we have named Sammy. We decided to set him free at Kuyper also. I like to believe that Hammy and Sammy found each other and are enjoying hanging out again. Here's a picture of Sammy enjoying the lush trees:
Well, after we captured Sammy, Adam thought he heard scampering in our walls still. I didn't hear anything, but Adam set his trap again, and sure enough we came home on Saturday night to find yet another flying squirrel in the trap. The poor little guy had apparently been in the trap for little awhile. We had those "humane" sticky glue traps inside the cage. He had really worked himself into it. He had actually chewed his way through the bottom of it, and really just ended shoving his face farther into the mess. He didn't look so good. The only way to get them out is by using vegetable oil......which as you can imagine, doesn't make him look all fluffy and cute. I'm not going to attach a picture of this guy, which I've named Whammy. Well, we checked on him Sunday morning and he still wasn't doing so hot, and unfortunately, later that day Whammy died. Sniff, sniff. We did pass along his little body to our taxidermy friend, but becuase of the glue trap and the vegetable oil, we're not very sure that he has the potential to be made into a stuffed animal.
Anyways, on a happier note, we have not heard anymore scampering and scurrying in our walls. It's quite peaceful actually. We think the flying squirrel saga is over.