BEWARE: THE SCARY SQUIRREL!!!!

Yesterday, James and his friend Darren were going to play in the back yard. As soon as they went out to the back yard, they came racing back saying "There's a squirrel in the back yard!!"

I was a bit surprised by this, but I wanted to check it out just to make sure everything was normal. It was not. There was a little squirrel following the boys out of the back yard, towards the garage. It was not stopping and running away, like a normal squirrel, it was actually chasing them across the back yard.

Jason (Darren's Dad) and I sent the boys inside the house so we could deal with the squirrel. We had to actually push the little squirrel out of the garage a few times so we could close the garage doors. It kept trying to come inside. When it was not trying to get inside, it was busy panting and shaking and looking stiff and wobbly. We were not sure if it was sick or injured, so we went inside and left it alone outside.

I told Karen about the little squirrel so she could watch out for it. I didn't want her to be surprised by a little fuzzy guy looking for a leg to climb up. Today, when I got home from work, Karen said, "There's a squirrel in the back yard, under the water faucet."

I looked in the back yard and sure enough, there he was. The little squirrel was panting and shaking and looking a little worse than the day before. I decided it was time to call for reinforcements, so I asked Karen to call the local animal control office while I watched the little squirrel pant for a few minutes. Note: When you call animal control, you actually get the Overland Park Police department. Karen told them what was going on, and we thought that they were going to send an animal control officer. Nope, they sent a real police officer to our house, at 6 o'clock in the evening, in a police car that was clearly marked as a police car. 6 o'clock is the same time that our neighbors all return from work to see the police car in front of our house, by the way. They drove very slowly past the house, wondering if they were going to see a "Springer moment" in action.

After a few trips around the back yard (the squirrel kept going through the fence) with the very nice police officer, I eventually caught the squirrel in a shoe box and gave it to the police officer to do whatever he thought should be done. He actually had no idea what to do with it at first, we were his first "squirrel call". I think he decided that he was going to take it to the animal control facility, or something.

Since the police car went away, three neighbors have asked me if everything is okay.
I answered that "All is well again.", and James says "The Scary Squirrel is gone now, the Police man took it."