Edward the Dakrat

Well damn, so much for not posting more than once today.

So I let the dogs out to romp in the snow and do the business that dogs enjoy doing outside. After a few minutes, I opened the door and whistled for Artemis. She didn't come. I ran over to the window to see what the hell was keeping her and Achilles occupied. She was digging underneath the house. I yell at Caayn to get his damn dog in. That doesn't deter her, and she never disobeys Caayn. Both dogs are acting all twitchy at the bottom of one of our rain gutter thingies. Except what this gutter thingy is doing, I don't know, since it's not attached to anything and is actually just laying along the house... Anyway! There was a loud squeak coming from the drain.

Now Caayn is outside corraling the dogs, I'm hanging out the window and Sully is standing on a table near the open window yelling, "Cold!" "Daddy!" "Abby!" at turns. (Abby is the hellhound we used to own, I thought I blogged about her, but after a brief search of my archives and it doesn't look like I did, but Sully now thinks most dogs outside are Abby.) There was a search of some lighting, to see if we could see up the tube. No flashlights to be found. Caayn takes the gutter into the garage, since I'm all worried whatever it is inside might fall out.

After a whole lot of banging and scrabbling and various gloves and towels, a tail emerges. By this point, I had already figured it was a dakrat. They have very distinctive whistles. Finally I catch it by the tail and pull it the rest of the way out (much to his discomfort).

The little bugger is now sitting inside of our kitchen trash can, sans trash bag. I've taken 12 pictures of him, but without more film or digital camera, I can't take any more. He is SO damn adorable. Have I ever said how much I love squirrels?

Oh, in case anyone is wondering what the fuck a dakrat is, let me tell you. A dakrat is really just a gopher, more or less. The real name is Richardson's Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus richardsonii). Dakrat is just some screwed up name the North Dakota natives have donned on them. When I made my first friend on base, she was always talking about dakrats, and I was so confused until she pointed them out. When Caayn was going to tech school at Vandenberg AFB (where I met him, since I lived right near there), that base was literally crawling with regular ground squirrels. It was awesome.

So yeah. There's a dakrat in my trash can. He's damn cute. I've named him Edward... I while I really really really really really want to keep him... I won't. I don't do good with caged animals, despite the fact I've had many many various types of rodents and small furry creatures and carpet sharks throughout my life. Plus I don't think Jimmy would consent to watching both our cat AND a wild critter. Hahaha.

*sigh*

I figure if I keep posting, I won't have to go upstairs and pet his little head one more time before sticking him back outside. Poor thing. He should have kept hibernating. Geez. It's damn cold out.