Squirrels in the attic...

... and we can hear them running around up there on the third floor under the eaves and in the crawl spaces behind the library walls. Perhaps they would like to read some of the books?

Thankfully, the squirrels can't get into the library... there are two little trap doors that go from the library into the crawl spaces on either side of that room, but those doors are locked from the library side, preventing anything (furry and cute or slithery and ugly) from getting beyond the crawl space.

With the squirrel problem in mind, my husband went searching the Internet for answers on how to re-locate the squirrel family. We don't know how many are up there, but it's definitely more than one because at times it sounds like they're having a race up there from one end of the attic to the other. Of course we could set traps, but that would either kill the squirrels or make them crazy till they're let out of those cages.  I've seen a squirrel who was caught in a catch-release trap and the poor thing kept banging his furry head against the metal cage till he was bleeding. (Not exactly what I'd want to happen up there in the attic.)

So my husband searched the Internet and found that the urine of a fox would scare squirrels away very quickly. (That was not a typo.)  Off my husband went to the hunting/fishing stores, and he found that they did indeed sell bottles of urine from various prey animals. (Don't ask how the urine is collected... I don't know and I don't want to know.)

My husband bought a small bottle of red fox urine at the Academy Sporting Goods store. Apparently, squirrels stay far away from red foxes because a fox will catch and eat a squirrel and then go out and catch another, and another.

This morning, my husband heard the squirrel noises up in the attic. As I type, he is up there with the bottle of fox urine and a small plastic tray lined with a paper towel. He intends to pour a little of the urine on the paper towel in the tray, open up the little trap door into the attic eaves, place the tray on the attic floor, and then lock up that door... hoping that the squirrels will get a whiff of that offending liquid, pack their bags, and find lodgings elsewhere.

And here I sit... city girl that I've always been... hoping that the next time I go up to the third floor and walk into my library, the only thing I'll get a whiff of is the gentle old papery odor of my books.

Now, honestly.... do you think I could make this stuff up?