Canter Bridge

My early mornings and occasional other moments in our family’s life on Indianapolis’ north side have been punctuated for about a year by noisy chewing. Apparently, this toothy romp takes place in crawl spaces and attics.

Squirrels have been the main suspects, so I’ve been consulting the half-hopeless writings of blogs and web pages where strategies against these relentless foes are mounted, critiqued, and abandoned.

Then two weeks ago I had reason to look for a missing tool in the ample drawers of a workshop that forms part of our house but is entered from the garage or the backyard. As I opened one of the drawers, I discovered that it had been filled to its brim by insulation material knicked from our attic, two stories up. Embedded in this soft, carefully constructed bed, were six sleepy-eyed little squirrels who didn’t seem to mind my discovery of them as much as they did the untimely light that it let it into their bedroom.

The dogs, of course, became obsessively interested. I quickly locked them out.

Now that I knew where the things lived, closer inspection revealed that Daddy and Mommy (presumably) Squirrel had eaten through some rain-soaked wood in the celing of this little-used workshop, then made a habit of jumping the foot or so distance down to the top of a ladder I’d leaned against the wall. Then, like latter-day angels ascending and descending Jacob’s ladder, they’d found their thoroughfare from ground floor to ceiling crawl-space and higher to better things (pink insulation) in the attic.

As I gently checked in on the little guys throughout the day, their numbers decreased. Down to two at one point and then, soon, to an entirely empty drawer. Danger had moved them on, which—on balance—is a good thing.

No mysterious chewing has been detected since.

There are, however, some hilariously juvenile squirrels performing new acrobatics in the trees and among the bird feeders of our backyard. I wonder whether they daydream of the soft bed in which they used to repose before that Ugly Big Guy came and started looking in on their tranquility.