Unlikely Combination: Fur Coats and Squirrels

Recently I wrote a little bit about my Grandma Hattie in a journal entry. As stated in that entry she passed away. She died from complications from a stroke. When I got older I rarely saw her or talked to her much. I talked to her some when she stayed at our home for a while. After she passed away, my Mom, my Aunt Cyndi, my brother Jevon, my Sisters and I moved her things from her apartment. Most of it came to our home, and some of it was donated (I think to a organization for women who are domestic violence victims). Well anyways her two fur coats were kept in the closet in my bedroom (which is the attic).

Sunday when I came home from work, I grabbed my foot soaker and went to put some hot water in it. After I did this I came back to my bedroom and I saw Bouk and Jet, sitting next to the closet door. At first I was like, "I don't know why you two are staring at the door, there isn't anything in there". Then I heard something! So I got up and took my feet out of the water and walked over to the door and I moved the radiator that I had blocking the door so the cats won't get in there (Bouk ended up in the wall before, long story). When I opened it, I saw one of my Grandmothers fur coats lying on the floor, ripped completely to shreds. I mean it was mangled, and it made me upset. Not just because I didn't act when I first saw the cats by the door, but because I new I had this problem before. It never occurred to me that the squirrels would try and used my Grandmother's fur coats as part of there nest. Funny thing is I recently saw Animals Behaving Worse on PBS, and one of the segments was about a squirrel stealing ribbons made of cloth. The tan colored fur coat (this is real fur people, and they were old school) is finished, but I managed to save the dark brown coat. It's hanging on one of the blinds that is covering my window.



Imagine how I must have felt when I found out what had happen. I wanted to obliterate every squirrel within a 1500 mile radius of me and my Grandmother's fur coat. I was thinking about putting moth balls in my closet, but if a squirrel ate one it would most likely die. "Not that it's a bad thing", was floating through my brain. Then I remembered that something died in my wall, a couple of years back, and my entire bedroom had the most appalling stench that ever graced my nasal passages and penetrate my lungs. I suffered through it with candles and Air-Wick air fresheners for weeks, and finally it went away. Then there was one of my former co-workers (who oddly enough has a blog too, hers is on live journal). Three years ago she convinced me that it would be wrong to put moth balls in my closet or in my wall, because it would kill the squirrels, and the pigeons (yes I had a pigeon problem too, if you ever have this problem I recommend really loud music). Then she told me to get humane traps. I was like forget it, I am just SOL on this one and let it go. Now my grandmothers coat is damaged beyond repair and I am about 5 hours away from doing "SOMETHING"! I don't know what yet, but I am leaning toward moth balls. This would have been one of those Explicit Journal Entries, but that Subtitle Movie thing cheered me up yesterday. Thanks Ari, Mad Secretary, Omar, and Stephanie. All of yours had me cracking up. I needed it.