Squirrels are commonplace in Iola, in numbers that have some residents wondering if there aren’t more in town than in the country.
Now several want to make an area above a false ceiling in the rear portion of the Register office home.
Monday one of the aerial rodents made himself known when he climbed onto a piece canvas that for years covered an opening where an electric hoist lifted huge rolls of paper when we printed the Register here.
“Cute,” cooed female members of our staff, when the squirrel, with it head lying on its front paws, gawked back without any indication of fright.
A ladder put in easy climbing range failed to encourage the squirrel to leave, and by the next day another had joined the first. We put up a live trap baited with corn, but the squirrels’ weight wasn’t enough to close the trap’s door.
Mark Hastings, advertising manager, added a string to the trap’s trigger for us to pull at the appropriate time and soon we had one, and then both in custody. A third was shooed from the building when he tried to sneak in the back door.
The two trapped squirrels were taken out into the country and by today they no doubt have made friends with rural cousins. We thought the squirrel problem had been solved.
Then, Sports Editor Jocelyn Sheets found out differently. While writing up the day’s games Wednesday evening, she heard another squirrel scampering across the fiber tile ceiling, which put Trapper Mark back to work this morning.
How the squirrels are finding their way indoors is a mystery. The Register building’s roof was redone not long ago. However, it is a fact that if a squirrel can get his head through a opening, he can squeeze the rest of his body through.
