OT: Dead Animal Somewhere

[CL82]

I opened the flue and a sort of petrified squirrel drops into the fireplace.

I've told this story before here but, one year in December we had been hearing a scratching sound on and off for a few days and finally tracked it down to the chimney. I guessed that squirrels had been getting in and out of the chimney looking for a place to nest. My wife had a holiday party and I was home with the kids. I had put them to bed when I decided to build a fire thinking that the squirrels would be naturally afraid of it. I rolled a newspaper tight thinking I would open the flue a crack and get some smoke going up there. I did and didn't hear anything. I figured that they were out so I thought that I would build a roaring fire which would dissuade them from coming back. I opened the flue a bit more and started the fire and... still nothing. Confident that they were gone for whatever reason, I opened the flue fully and got a big fire going. It was going pretty well when all of sudden a smoking squirrel hops out looks around the room in a panic and scampers right up my Christmas tree. I thought to myself, aw f----, the whole house is going to go up and I was prepared to grab the tree and throw it outside, whether that would have helped is debatable, but as it turned out the squirrel self-extinguished before he got to the tree.

I closed off the interior doors to the family room and grabbed a bucket and ladle and prepared to do battle when... my wife called. That call went something like this:

Hi honey.
Hey how's the party?
It was good, we're wrapping things up now. I was talking with Helen and ....
Yeah, can we talk later? I've got a flaming squirrel in the Christmas tree and I sort of need to deal with that.
What???!
Kids are fine, I'm fine, the house is fine, but I gotta go. Talk to you later.

I open the door to the garage and start pounding the bucket and heading to the tree. The squirrel takes off runs around the room spots the garage door and and runs in there. I slam the door the closed and was feeling pretty good until I realized that wife was undoubtedly heading home and would open the door only to be greeted by Satan's squirrel. Realizing I had to deal with that, I open the door and put on the light. The squirrel sees the light and starts running toward me. I slam the door. I realize that I had to open the garage door to let him out but the opener switch is located right outside the door I just had identified to the squirrel as a way out. I took a deep breath opened the door and see the squirrel running for me, I slap the switch and slam the door closed.

The next day we spotted the squirrel in the yard with a big black singe mark but otherwise none the worse for the adventure. We nicknamed him Bernie.

 

[Vancat]

good story!

 

[Tommyboy]

I've told this story before here but, one year in December we had been hearing a scratching sound on and off for a few days and finally tracked down the chimney. I guessed that squirrels had been getting in and out of the chimney looking for a place to nest. My wife had a holiday party and I was home with the kids. I had put them to bed when I decided to build a fire thinking that the squirrels would be naturally afraid of it. I rolled a newspaper tight thinking I would open the flue a crack and get some smoke going up there. I did and didn't hear anything. I figured that they were out so I thought that I would build a roaring fire which would dissuade them from coming back. I opened the flue a bit more and started the fire and... still nothing. Confident that they were gone for whatever reason, I opened the flue fully and got a big fire going. It was going pretty well when all of sudden a smoking squirrel hops out looks around the room in a panic and scampers right up my Christmas tree. I thought to myself, aw f----, the whole house is going to go up and I was prepared to grab the tree and throw it outside, whether that would have helped is debatable, but as it turned out the squirrels self-extinguished before he got to the tree.

I closed off the doors to the interior doors to the family room and grabbed a bucket and ladle and prepared to do battle when... my wife called. That call went something like this:

Hi honey.
Hey how's the party?
It was good, we're wrapping things up now. I was talking with Helen and ....
Yeah, can we talk later I've got a flaming squirrel in the Christmas tree and I sort of need to deal with that.
What???!
Kids are fine, I'm fine., the house is fine, but I gotta go. Talk to you later.

I open the door to the garage and start pounding the bucket and heading to the tree. The squirrel takes off runs around the room spots the garage door and and runs in there. I slam the door the closed and was feeling pretty good until I realized that wife was undoubted heading home and would open the door to be greeted by Satan's squirrel. Realizing I had to deal with that I open the door and realized I had put on the light. The squirrel sees the light and start running toward me. I slam the door. I realize that I had to open the door but the opener switch is located right outside the door I just had identified to the squirrel as a way out. I took a deep breath opened the door and see the squirrel running for me, I slap the switch and slam the door closed.

The next day we spotted the squirrel in the yard with a big black singe mark but otherwise none the worse for the adventure. We nicknamed him Bernie.

Thats great. All I can think about is this:

 

[mussels]

good story!

Agreed. Think that is the best flaming squirrel in the Christmast tree story I've ever heard.

 

[StllH8L8ner]

Thats great. All I can think about is this:

"Squirrrrrrrrrel!!!"

 

[nomar]

I remember a few times hamsters got out of the cages in our houses and ended bbq'd in the radiators along the floors.

I ate a spit-roasted guinea pig in Cusco, Peru. Not enough meat.

 

[87Xfer]

When our daughter was really young, like 5 or 6, she went to a B-day party where they had a crawfish boil. She decided to "rescue" one of the crawfish. She brought him home and named him Dinkleman. The first night he escaped from the small bowl he was in and was nowhere to be found. We looked everywhere. Amost 2 days later we found him in the front hall coat closet that was absolutely at the opposite end of our house from where he escaped from the bowl. And we had a cat at the time who was an accomplished hunter. No idea how he covered so much ground undetected. (We had him for a solid 2-3 months before he passed.)

 

[8893]

When our daughter was really young, like 5 or 6, she went to a B-day party where they had a crawfish boil. She decided to "rescue" one of the crawfish. She brought him hoe and named him Dinkleman. The fist night he escaped from the small bowl he was in and was nowhere to be found. We looked everywhere. Amost 2 days later we found him in the front hall coat closet what was absolutely at the opposite end of our house from where he escaped from the bowl. And we had a cat at the time who was an accomplished hunter. No idea how he covered so much ground undetected. (We had him for a solid 2-3 months before he passed.)

When our youngest was five we brought her (and our other daughters) to Crawfish Fest, a New Orleans-inspired, camp-on-site food and music festival in New Jersey. On Friday night they give each camper a ticket for a free serving of crawfish. My other two daughters wouldn't touch the things; our youngest ate all of hers and her sisters'. People were in awe watching a five year old peel and plow through them--myself included!

 

[Edward Sargent]

I ate a spit-roasted guinea pig in Cusco, Peru. Not enough meat.

Taste like chicken?

 

[Edward Sargent]

My pest control guy in Truro was late to my appointment for carpenter bees. He explained that the stop before me took a long time. The owners had just come back from Florida and had dead animal smell in the front of the house. The pest guy couldn't find it until he was walking around the house and saw a critter stick his head out of a small hole in the roof eave. It was a weasel which had caught about a dozen chipmunks and brought them into its nest to munch on over time!

 

[Waquoit]

My parents trapped a squirrel in the basement and let it go on the other side of the river. It was screaming the entire time. Later during spring cleaning, they opened a box and it had 4 dead squirrel babies.

 

[temery]

My parents trapped a squirrel in the basement and let it go on the other side of the river. It was screaming the entire time. Later during spring cleaning, they opened a box and it had 4 dead squirrel babies.

You've gotta be fun at parties.

 

[boba]

I ate a spit-roasted guinea pig in Cusco, Peru. Not enough meat.

Taste like chicken?

More like rabbit. Cuy also came with a pepper in its mouth that the guide dared us to eat - and since I eat everything (at least once) I did. Lit me up. Hot as any habanero or any other pepper I've eaten.

 

[Exit 4]

I can smell a dead animal somewhere in my house and can’t pinpoint it. I’ve confirmed all the usually suspected places: chimney, eaves etc. I’m not sure I’ll ever locate it. Does the smell just eventually go away?

I had a dead squirrel in my chimney last spring...took 6 weeks for the smell to go away and two months for the flies to stop.....it was a crappy experience. I now own a "bug assault" salt gun because of it.

And now I think I have had two incidences over a 10 day period of squirrels falling into my attic furnace system and disappearing into the walls of my house. All we know is we heard scratching and gnawing in the middle of the night and then we found holes in the air supply ducts where they chewed their way out (two different occasions) the next day. The tracks left behind suggest it was a squirrel. My house is new and well sealed up but for my furnace and chimney flues. So where did they go? No good idea, so I'm afraid this most recent incident is far from over.....new chapter ahead.

 

[temery]

Get a cat, people. Get a cat.

 

[nomar]

Taste like chicken?

Doesn't everything?

 

[temery]

Doesn't everything?

Not if you have covid.

 

[M.S.G.]

My parents trapped a squirrel in the basement and let it go on the other side of the river. It was screaming the entire time. Later during spring cleaning, they opened a box and it had 4 dead squirrel babies.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESH...

 

[uconnfan68]

Get a cat, people. Get a cat.

Ours only plays with the prey, at least the ones she’s managed to bring inside.

 

[HCCForever]

Here's my squirrel story. I have a screen enclosure over my pool. One day we saw a squirrel stop on top of the enclosure while over the center of the pool and relieve themselves in the pool. Not sure if they knew what they were doing but they appeared to be mocking us. We used some extra chlorine that week.

 

[uconn13]

Rather long winded, but here goes:
When I was working in the early 90's at Glen Gery brick in Berks County PA, there was a guy they called Snapper, who was one of those Fred Sanford types, he'd always be asking if you, or anyone you knew, needed to have a garage or house emptied, he kept everything, and apparently kept his own home packed to the gills with from emptying other folks properties. Dirty, smelly fella pushing 250 lbs. He lived in a house with his wife and 2 kids, and apparently, they didn't have running water in the place, so he'd bring the family in to shower when the off shifts were running the 12 hour burn at the plant a few times per week, when there were only like 5 guys in the place. He was the guy on your shift, that everybody hurried to beat into, and out of, the shower house, he was a real slob. I was never present to see it, thankfully I was fast enough to shower, dress and split, but guys told me he was fond of digging toe jamb for a good 20 minutes, naked as could be, before getting showered.

Any way, they used to hand out turkeys at Thanksgiving, hams at Easter, etc....to the workers, and one Thanksgiving year, he takes his turkey home to the wife and kids. His old lady is prepping the bird for the oven, and if I recall details correctly, she realizes that she doesn't have something (like sliced pineapple or some for on top of the thing) before it went into the stove, so the entire family piles into his truck and off to the local grocery to pick up whatever it actually was that she needed. Problem is, she left the bird on the kitchen table when they split. Upon returning home, she finished and stuck the bird in the oven. After a while, they smell something that certainly wasn't normal aroma from a turkey. She pulls the thing out of the oven and they realize that a rat crawled into the bird and was what they smelled cooking. The unreal part of my story? They still finished cooking the thing and ate the turkey.

Now I know what you are all thinking, I am full of it, no way anybody could be that disgusting. Lemme tell you all though, this story WAS NOT made up by a co-worker of the dude who lived like Fred Sanford, this story was actually told by Snapper himself, during lunch break one afternoon after the Thanksgiving holiday break, circa 1990.

All that I can say, hearing his words, with my own 2 ears that day, from the dude whose family actually ate the free turkey partially baked with a rat inside of it, is that I thank the heavens above that I wasn't eating turkey leftovers during lunch break that afternoon. Oh, yeah, and how can anybody be that desperate, too? Back then we were all making like $22/hour, could've went out and bought his wife and kids a fresh, uncontaminated bird.....not Snapper, though.

30 years on and I still feel as though I lived through an audition for a Chevy Chase, Vacation type movie that day, and I have never looked at the Thanksgiving holiday the same since.

 

[Kitaman]

At my house a plunger usually fixes the smell.

 

[tykurez]

Update - I’ve used my covid-free smelling skills to pinpoint it to this vent in our range. Opened up about 5 panels on the thing and can’t get to it.

Call a professional or let it ride out?

 

[temery]

Update - I’ve used my covid-free smelling skills to pinpoint it to this vent in our range. Opened up about 5 panels on the thing and can’t get to it.

Call a professional or let it ride out?

Try a shopvac or snake? Blow some lime in there?

https://www.hunker.com/12001244/how-to-use-lime-to-get-rid-of-an-odor

 

[mussels]

Try a shopvac or snake?

Or inexpensive snake inspection camera (look at Amazon)? If you're 100% sure its in the stove it seems like a no brainer to do whatever you need to get it out.