Time to Vent

How do you remove a squirrel trapped in a sewer vent? That was the question we had to answer the other day.

The girls and I were at home and I kept hearing a strange noise, a sort of scratching and tapping. At first, I thought it was one of our many woodpeckers that occasionally mistake our house for a tree but when it persisted, I decided to chase it away. I peeked out the window and saw no bird but the noise was still there. And from where I stood it sounded as though it were coming from INSIDE the house.

Can you see the poor squirrel in the vent?

Searching for the noise's location, I ended up in the main bathroom and, sure enough, the noise was coming from inside our walls! Lot of scratching and chewing sounds and it sounded like it was much bigger than a mouse. Fearing that it would chew through something important, I informed my husband of the situation and he came home a bit early.

We went to the roof and looked down through the sewer vent. Peeking back at us was a very unhappy, soggy squirrel. We called a plumber, animal control, pest control, and the police to see if they could help us remove the critter. They all laughed and said it sounded like we had a problem but they wouldn't help.

Thankfully, my husband is very handy. We realized the squirrel was close to the clean out so we just had to open that and fish the squirrel out. Ah, if only it were that simple! But alas, we didn't have a wrench big enough for the clean out so Jon went to the store and bought one. Then, the clean out wouldn't budge so another trip back to the store (where the workers recognized my husband as the "squirrel guy") to buy a new clean out. This time Jon sawed through the pipe and I climbed to the roof in the dark and light rain to shine a light down the vent so he would know where the squirrel was stuck.

Wouldn't you know it but the squirrel was gone! Well, we figured it hadn't gotten out so Jon went squirrel "fishing" with a drain auger. And he caught one, seven hours after we first began this rescue effort. Unfortunately, after being trapped in there all day and being doused with toilet water occasionally, the squirrel didn't make it. Now the next step is to get a cover for the vent so this won't happen again!