As mentioned in the previous post, there has been an explosion in the red squirrel population on the island. They are very cute but not when they try and eat their way into your cottage. Different cottagers have different solutions ranging from "leave them alone, they are natures creatures" to "shoot them". Aimee and Greg's solution is to catch them and transport them to the mainland or as Rich calls it "Dinner and a Cruise".
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The first step is to load up the live trap with nuts (almonds or peanuts are on the menu)
and then set it. |
Often there is a squirrel in the tree chattering at us while we are doing this. We have been told that squirrels can swim (didn't believe it until we found a Utube video) and that they are probably just swimming back to the island. So the next step is to get some paint on them. We are using non toxic, children's paint. Basically you just have to put a dab of paint on the brush, stick it into the cage and the squirrel is so hyper it paints itself. Hopefully some ends up on the head or back (don't want it to wash off if he is swimming back).
Aimee then puts the cage in the boat and takes the squirrel across to the mainland, puts the cage on the dock and opens it. During the boat ride, she says they either cling onto the cage looking at her with frightened eyes or spread eagle themselves on the floor. I don't think they really enjoy the "cruise" part. Sometimes they don't seem to want to get out of the cage on the dock, almost as if they know they are in another squirrels territory.
So far 31 red squirrels have been "voted off the island", 7 of them with lime green paint on them.
Al and Rich say they saw one with green paint the other day, but we don't believe them. They have been known to joke around (or perhaps they were hallucinating!).
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