My mother and I were interrupted at our dinner the other day by what sounded like a bird trapped behind our bookcase. Its pitiful squeaks and plaintive scratches called for rescue. Despite the fact that a bird trapped behind the bookcase is an absurd notion I set to work unloading the many volumes and little nick-knacks. I slid the heavy shelf aside revealing nothing but a years worth of cobwebs, a couple of earwigs and dust.
Had we been imagining the sounds? Can our senses really be trusted? Yes and No, for after a brief silence there the sound was again not simply from behind the bookcase but behind a disk covering an old hole in the wall. Long before we took up residence here the little cottage had been outfitted with a little wood burning stove. When it was renovated the stove was removed and the hole leading to the chimney was covered, caulked, and painted over. To release the little creature I would have to rip open this hole. I gathered some supplies and chiseled away.
With the disk loosened and pried off the wall I peered in the sooty hole with a flashlight revealing the soft gray plumes of a little gray squirrel. With the aid of an old pillow case and some duct tape I managed to catch him and carry him outside. He dashed away covered in soot and egger to climb the nearest tree which he promptly climbed down again realizing it was not his tree. Yes, the squirrel is my pecan rival, and yes, they are pests but my heart can not bear to think of one of those little bounding critters wasting away in the chimney.
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Your story reminded me of when I was a child. My family heated with wood and in the summer birds, perhaps looking for a nesting spot, would occasionally find their way into the chimney, falling helplessly down the blackened pipe into the stove's belly. This always created excitement in my family's home since the only way to rescue the bird was to open the stove door to free the bird . . . into the dining room. An adventure of chasing the poor, frightened, bewildered, and sooty bird with a butterfly net ensued until it was caught and released in the outdoors. Eventually my dad put screen over the chimney's opening to prevent unsuspecting birds from such an event. Your squirrel must indeed have been relieved to be free.
Katie
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