A Tale of Two Squirrels

The Sun is shining brightly here in Chaumont, N.Y. this morning. The night time temperatures have been around 24 to 28 degrees for the past week or so. That is decidedly cooler than my recollection of last year.
I am getting a bit tense because I have had no freelance work this month except a small paying guitar gig that was nothing more than a trial event at a seasonal restaurant. That would be J Fins in Sackets Harbor. I wanted them to try me out and it turned out god. They plan to have me play there next Spring/Summer season.  I lost out on one lcrative freenlance job a couple weeks before election day. It was a political rally for NY Senator Bill Owens. It took place in Alexandria Bay. The NY State teachers union asked me to cover it, but, because it was on a Friday evening,  I had to photograph football for the Post-Standard. Working Friday nights for the paper is terrible for me. It means I have a conflict shooting Friday evening weddings. Also, many brides like for me to go to the wedding rehersal which is almost always on the Friday evening before the Saturday wedding. So that's a hassle. I wouldn't mind working Friday days (which I used to do!) But working nights on Friday means I get to bed late on the night before I photograp[h a wedding. This just leaves me overly tired. Also, from a musical stand point, I have turned down numerous friday night guitar gigs because of my Post-Standard schedule. I hate it.

Young grey squirrel I caught in a live animal trap. After catching him I went up to repair the hole he used to enter our house and discovered the remains of the squirrel in the lower photo.

 Recently there has been a squirell running around in our house. We heard him inside the walls and ceiling.
So I set out a live animal trap and captured the critter in the above photo. Since then the noise seems to have stopped, so we assume he was the culprit. I drove him  eight miles away and released him. There is a hole in the eaves next to the chimney at our house where he probably got in. Back in the Spring I saw an adult squirrel enter in and out of that hole. The ladder I had on hand would not get me close enough to repair the hole. My longer ladder was in town at one of my apartment houses. I was anxious to be rid of the squirrel so I took a shot at him with my Gammo air rifle. It seemed that I hit him, or at least scared  the wits out of him because he leaped in the air and dashed back into the hole in the eves. A few days ago I finally got my long laddr back here and climbed it to close up/repair the hole and a peek inside with a flashlight revealed the remains of the squirrel in the photo below. How macabre!

Remains of a squirrel that I assume was living in my house, running around the attic. I suspect he the one I shot with my air rifle. Months passed before I got up there to close up the hole and discovered the carcass.