Unwelcome Christmas Guest

[DOC22 1]

This was in the Journal News on Tuesday 12/28/04, gives a whole new meaning to the old "Twas the night before Christmas

Squirrel makes an unwelcome Yuletide visit

By ROB RYSER

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: December 28, 2004)

BEDFORD — It was all set: the shrimp with barbecue sauce, the linguini and clams, the lobster tails and the scallops wrapped in bacon. It was going to be a traditional Italian Christmas Eve feast, plus a few modern touches, with the best friends that Janet and Nick Hayden have.

And then things got squirrelly.

For the next two hours, Christmas Eve at the Haydens was more like Christmas Eve with the Griswolds in the Chevy Chase comedy "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

"I was stirring something on top of the stove when my friend came in and said, 'We have a problem. There is a squirrel in your son's room,' " said Nick Hayden, recalling the Dec. 24 debacle.

"He was about to shut the door when all of a sudden this squirrel bolts out of my son's room in full gallop, sees me, and makes a beeline for the Christmas tree in the living room," Hayden said. "He jumped over the presents, climbed up the trunk and parked himself next to the star."

The kids downstairs were oblivious, and that was good because this creature could easily be rabid, the parents agreed. And there were enough minds already collaborating on how to coax the squirrel down the lighted tree and out of the house.

Opening all the doors only made the house cold.

Janet Hayden placed a fat walnut by the door, shelled of course. Nothing.

Nick Hayden poked the critter with a pole, provoking a growl that he said sounded like an Ewok from "Star Wars."

Let the dogs out of the bedroom, suggested the guests, Janet and Keith Henderson, who had driven up from Farmingdale, N.Y.

"One of our dogs is an 85-pound Labrador, and the other is a 65-pound mix, and I figured that 150 pounds of dog chasing two pounds of squirrel through the house wasn't a good idea," said Nick Hayden.

Hayden pictured a Disney cartoon his son, Nicky, had watched in which Pluto tore up the house trying to catch chipmunks hidden in a Christmas tree.

That's when Hayden called Bedford police. At first, the sergeant referred him to animal control experts.

Ammonia, one expert said. Squirrels don't like ammonia. But all the Haydens had was Windex, which the squirrel didn't seem to mind.

After another call to police, Bedford Police Officer Billy Smith arrived. "This is like the Chevy Chase movie," he said.

Yes, we know, Hayden told him. In the movie, Chase's character runs after a squirrel, electrocutes a cat and has a host of misadventures in pursuit of a traditional Christmas Eve.

And no, Hayden told the officer, we don't know if he came down the chimney or how he got in.

Meanwhile in the basement of the Haydens' ranch house on Cherry Street, 6-year-old Nicky Hayden and the Henderson kids — Rachel and Reis — were begging to be let up to see the squirrel.

No way, said Nick Hayden, who was fitting a wire noose on the end of the pole to lasso the gray critter.

"At first, we didn't want to hurt him, but by the end, we were ready to have him for dinner," Hayden said.

Working with the officer, all Hayden got with the lasso was a patch of gray tail fur; again, the squirrel didn't seem to mind, Hayden said.

"We finally unplugged the tree, took out all the presents and dragged the tree across my living room floor to the outside, and he ran out," Hayden said. "He is probably still running."

It was only after the squirrel was gone, and the tree was plugged back in, with the presents put back in place, that the kids were allowed upstairs.

Janet Hayden took pictures and thanked Officer Smith.

And then came the feast that everyone had planned.

"No Christmas will ever be the same," Nick Hayden said.

[JBE 328]

Squirrels, rats, raccoons, skunks, rabbits, the occasional bat. Fun times all around.

[afd65 4]

that sucks to have that happen

[mstrang1 213]

JBE- so you must be having fun times in the attic and basement of Ardsley Firehouse! We have all those---- and more! It's mostly bats... at one point last year I counted 60 leaving our abandoned hose tower in 10 minutes.