Squirrel postscript -- and how Older Daughter got an earful

(If you need to read more about how this squirrel saga began, click on this link.)

Marvin the squirrel guy came back Thursday as promised (while I was safely at work) to determine if our recent squirrelly visitor was or was not a member of an extended family at home in our home.

The attic turned out to be squirrel-free.

And Marvin detected little squirrel footprints or something in or near the furnace, confirming, to the satisfaction of all, that our visitor had fallen down the chimney.

When the house was tuckpointed a couple of years back, we had the contractor put up a screen of sorts. But it didn't take.

So Marvin returned again on Sunday morning to install a new barrier. He even removed a few nearby branches from an overhanging tree. It was probably from one of those branches that our clumsy visitor slipped, falling into the chimney in the first place.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Older Daughter came up from Indianapolis for the weekend, it being Father's Day and all. She parked her car across the street and made it almost to the front walk before she was waylaid by the neighbor kids... the same neighbor kids who, even as Marvin was capturing the squirrel, were lobbying Long Suffering Spouse and Younger Daughter to keep the beastie as a pet. Older Daughter has babysat for these kids in the past.

"Did you know there was a squirrel in your mom's house?" said one.

"And a man came and put it in a cage!" said another.

"It was in your mom's house!" said the littlest one, who could think of nothing original to say at that precise moment.

"And they wouldn't keep it as a pet!"

Three kids, four comments, and maybe two footsteps by Older Daughter... who thanked the kids profusely for the information and eventually resumed her journey toward the front door.

It gave Older Daughter an immediate topic for conversation. She burst into the house. Did she greet her mother? Did she greet me? Did she say, "Hello, I'm home?"

No, she marched into the den and demanded to know: "Did you have a squirrel in the house?"