Squirrel in the bathroom!!

photo: www.allarsonphotography.com

A squirrel moved into our building a week or so ago. The abandoned lots across "H" Streets, owned by local Amports, have "naturalized " to the point where the wildlife there: cats, rats, squirrels, snakes, ducks, and raccoons now have more natural cover to expand their numbers and this "affordable" housing is impacting the surrounding neighborhood.
Amports is the local auto processing company responsible for off loading and parking the newly made cars that are brought into the port of Benicia. You can see their acres of sparkly new vehicles shining in the sun from the bridge ramps into Benicia. Their site says: AMPORTS USA has seven US port facilities, located in Jacksonville, Florida, Brunswick, Georgia, Benicia, California and four facilities in Baltimore, Maryland. AMPORTS Corporate Headquarters is located in Jacksonville, Florida at our Jacksonville port facility, with a Corporate Branch Office at our Atlantic port facility in Baltimore, Maryland.
Anyway, this squirrel must have thought our open door to the Nourot Glass Studio and Smyers Glass Studio's galleries was too good to pass up.
He or she bounded easily up onto the shelves loaded with our hand blown art glass items, sending pieces plummeting to the floor! There was an extended chase involving two glass makers with blow pipe and broom to encourage this little fellow to move on. It was all quite comical until we realized any delay in catching this critter would result in more broken pieces. The Smyers Glass Gallery sustained more of the damages. Upon the third or fourth go round-- one or another of the participants in the chase tired out intermittently--the squirrel was scooped into a box with some wooden salad tongs from one of the displays.
All in all a memorable time was had by all. Perhaps it is time to declare open season on critters along East H Street to lower the population of varmints adverse to commerce. How would that comply with the City of Benicia's push to go "green" we don't know. Or perhaps it is time to find a way to make it attractive for the owner of the vacant property to sell it or clean it up.