Saturday, October 31, 2015

The ghost squirrel


By Hobo Hudson


This is a true story—well, partly true—just in time for Halloween.
 

Dad had finished hanging a new wooden door one Halloween morning and noticed a few dents and gouges in the wood and decided to fill them in with DAP putty. After the putty had dried, he sanded the putty with one of those sanding sponges.

When he finished, he banged the sponge against his ladder to get the dust off and heard a hacking and coughing. Looking down, he saw a squirrel sitting on the bottom rung of his ladder all covered with white putty dust. Dad started laughing and said, “Fellow, you look like a ghost.”

The little squirrel turned, gazed at himself and said, “I do, don’t I? This would be a great Halloween costume if I could figure out a way to keep the dust from falling off until evening.”

Dad thought about it for a couple of minutes. Then, he ran inside the house and returned with a can of Mom’s hair spray and started spraying the little guy and told him not to move until the hair spray dried.

Ten minutes later, Dad figured the spray would be dry, and he asked the squirrel to walk around to see how it felt, but the little guy couldn’t move a muscle. Dad decided he must have overdone the spraying a tad, so he wet a rag with water and dish detergent and started scrubbing the little guy’s jaws. After much scrubbing, he finally got the jaws loosened but had run out of detergent.

Dad picked up the little guy and set him at the side of the front door and took off to buy more detergent but thought of a few other things he should buy while at the store. By the time he got home, he had forgotten why he went to the store in the first place and simply put the bag on the countertop for Mom to put away.

By evening, the little squirrel was becoming desperate, and as each trick or treater arrived at the front door, he would chitter, “HELP,” but the kids all laughed because they all thought he was a novelty decoration. 

The next day at dawn, Dad went outside to get the newspaper and saw the little fellow still at the same spot where he had put him. Realizing what he had done, he scooped him up and put him into some warm water to soak a bit. Then he gave him a good washing with the replenished detergent and dried him off thoroughly. The squirrel, now able to move and open his mouth again, drank some water and ate a few peanuts before scampering off, yelling over his shoulder, “This is the last time I fall for one of your hair brained ideas.”

We never saw the little guy again, but it must have been very traumatic because every Halloween since that time, we see a ghostly squirrel sitting on our door step chittering, “HELP.”
 
 
 
 

3 comments:

AnnStaub said...

Lol... I would be scared if I saw him!

Ruby Rose and the Big Little Angels 3 said...

Your Dad is sweet and very kind to try to help but we would be better off leaving things up to Mother Nature

Ruby Rose and the Big Little Angels 3 said...

Your Dad is sweet and very kind to try to help but we would be better off leaving things up to Mother Nature

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About Hobo


This was Hobo Hudson, my doggy brother, a little terrier mix with black fur. He became famous after his first attempt at writing stories, which was an article published in the newsletter of our local animal shelter, the same shelter in which I ended up years later before Hobo and his parents adopted me. Hobo’s fame quickly spread as he made a name for himself as a business dog and an adventurer. To keep his memory alive, my doggy sister, my three kitty siblings and I, Wylie Hudson, are continuing his blog. Our mom is the blog’s editor.

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