Flying Squirrel Visitor at The Shack

During this last camping trip at The Shack we had a visitor in the middle of the night. Noises in the night are nothing new up there. After all, it is a ramshackle, off-grid camping cabin on top of a West Virginia ridge. I find it very hard to believe that there hasn't been more than mice visitors inside already. And there are always noises underneath the building in the middle of the night. Those noises lead my imagination to think of opossum, raccoon, ground hogs, and one time I imagined bear cubs!  But thus far, the only furry visitors we've had inside are mice.

During this trip I woke in the dark of night and heard little scratchy feet pattering around inside. The noises were so soft that the dogs didn't even stir. I fell back to sleep.

A bit later, the dogs shot out from under the sleeping bag and started "hunting". (Willy is a squirrel dog and Daisy is a rat terrier - both breeds hunt/chase/kill rodents).  The dogs were alerted, but not frantic so I suspected a mouse and I went back to sleep.

Off and on through the night, the dogs alerted and hunted. Then I noticed, shining a flashlight around, that they dogs were "looking up" (it's what squirrel dogs do to alert to the squirrel up a tree).

OH MAN! That scared me. That probably meant a bat hanging from the rafters !!! I nearly fainted just at the thought (I love bats outdoors. Inside, they cause me a pretty severe panic attack). 

I shone the light and tried to focus my eyes - to see a big pair of eyes staring back. YIKES!  And.. fur. Not like bat fur. Oh no! Is it a opossum? That option is as scary as a bat to me. Opossums freak me out. After focusing my eyes... I see that it is a baby squirrel. Or a chipmunk. Up in the very corner of the ceiling. 

I called the dogs off and went back to sleep.

In the morning, the little creature ran across the ceiling (upside down at times) and ran to hide behind the mattresses that were left leaning up against the wall by the previous owners.

My dilemma was that I needed to go to town to get ice, to prevent my food from spoiling. If I left that baby squirrel or chipmunk alone with my rodent dogs, they'd kill it. I like that they kill the mice but I didn't see any reason for them to kill a chipmunk. The weather was too hot to take the dogs along and leave them in the Jeep while I did my shopping. So I focused on chasing the critter outside.

During that fiasco of trying to get it outside, I noted that the little squirrel had flaps - a little ruffle that looked like a skirt. It was a flying squirrel! I don't think I've ever seen one before. How exciting. 

It took me a long time to convince the little creature to go outside. It went out on the deck twice and twice came right back inside. I finally got it outside a third time and stood in the doorway telling it to go away. Several times, it looked like it was going to launch from the back of the porch swing to inside. 

But then the little guy (or gal) launched off the deck and flew down the hill to the tree.

It was a wonderful experience to meet this little creature. And I need to educate myself on the species. If it has a nest in The Shack I suspect it's nest is in the area between the plywood and the siding - and it found a way inside this time.

I hope it remains - I just hope it doesn't continue to expose itself to the dogs.  

the brown fuzzy blur near the center of the photo is the flying squirrel while flying

 *This article may contain affiliate links. If you shop via one of the affiliate links, I may earn a small commission - at no additional cost to you. I am very appreciative of every reader who visits my articles. Thank you.