The Power of the Squirrel

This story showed up at the bottom of another story I was reading - I didn't discover it under a search for "squirrel - news". It's a sad story, so if you are bummed out today or likely to be, don't read this. Unfortunately, with squirrels being urban animals this kind of thing is often their fate. Squirrels briefly kill power in 2 cities Tue Nov 20, 6:30 AM ET ASHLAND, Wis. - It was an unlucky day for two squirrels and hundreds of Midwestern power customers. Brian Elwood, a spokesman for Xcel Energy, said a squirrel came in contact with an overhead transformer and knocked out service to 177 customers Monday. Power was fully restored in just under an hour, and repair crews found the remains of the "unfortunate squirrel," he said. By coincidence, another squirrel got into a substation 40 miles away in Ironwood, Mich., Monday morning and caused a temporary outage that affected about 1,400 customers in Ironwood and two nearby communities, Elwood said. The utility takes many preventive steps to keep the curious animals away from lines, he said, but they are one of the leading causes of outages, trailing only severe weather. "We kind of liken it to anyone who's had a bird feeder and tried to keep the squirrels out," he said. "They find a way." Rodney Johnson was stuck on an elevator at the city's Enterprise Center, where he works, when the power went out. "For a couple of minutes there, I wasn't sure if I'd make it to Thanksgiving," said Johnson, who said he is somewhat claustrophobic. "They kept talking to me while they were trying to open it up, though, so that helped." Once a firefighter opened the door, Johnson wasted no time in getting out. "I'm surprised I didn't knock him down," he said. ************************************************************************************* During our Goddesschess Celebration Holiday this July, one lovely morning Don and I were sitting out on the deck sipping coffee and relaxing. There is a utility pole on the lot line about 20 feet from the deck, along the north. It carries several tiers of wires, some thick, some so thin you can hardly see them unless you look a certain way; they march from my lot line across my yard and the yards of all my neighbors to the south, for about 2 blocks. I'm so used to them being up there I don't even notice them anymore. The thing is, the utility pole is rather close to a gigantic double trunked Chinese elm that overhangs the deck. One of the thicker wires acts as a sort of squirrel highway above and over the yards. The wires are within about 8-10 feet from the tree trunk and I can't tell you how many times I've seen a wire-travelling squirrel stop and take a leap from the wire to the tree. Unfortunately, sometimes squirrels will climb the utility pole and get zapped when they touch one of the things on the cross-bars of the pole that look the bolts that Frankenstein had in his neck - only much bigger. I don't know what they are, but they are "live" and carry current - enough to kill. In the 17 years I've lived here I only discovered one squirrel - unconscious. I moved him to an area where he was sheltered and kept my dogs (who were all alive then) away from him, and he eventually revived and went on his way. No such luck, though, for the squirrel who climbed up the pole while Don and I were out on the deck that morning. Things happened so quickly. I was facing the pole, Don's back was to it; I said something like "oh squirrel, get away from there" and Don, of course, didn't know what I was talking about. I motioned behind him and said there's a squirrel going up the pole and he's going to get fried and just as the words were out of my mouth there was a distinct "zzzzt" sound - a simultaneously little "yip" sound, and the squirrel fell. I sent Don to look and asked if he was breathing. Don said no, it doesn't look like it. We waited a little while and then I had him check again, and he said no. After I checked a third time, we got out the shovel and dug a grave. I wrapped the squirrel - who was quite hefty and had one teat (I wondered if she was a mommy and if she was, what would happen to her babies), in a plastic bag and we buried her deep enough so that the possum and racoon wouldn't be able to sniff her out and dig her up. Oh my. The weather was dark, dreary and misty/rainy today, and the story fit my mood. At lunch I think I depressed P as we ended up talking about mercury used in vaccines as a preservative (which really isn't necessary), and the possible link to the explosion in autism; the equal explosion in childhood food allergies and the potential link to genetically engineered foods (which we have no idea we're eating); and the crisis within the Inuit community due to PCBs and other chemicals changing the hormones of fetuses within the womb - from boys to girls. In one Inuit village no boy babies are being born anymore, and in many others the ratio of boy to girl births has plummeted. Real cheery stuff - not. Okay, time for a glass of wine. I had a 3.5 mile hike home from a doctor's appointment (I wasn't about to wait 40 minutes for the bus) and the bus and I arrived within half a mile of my house (where I would have gotten off if I had caught it) at the same time. Gee, Milwaukee, way to go to encourage people to use public transportation. Run a frigging bus once an hour. Well, at least I got my exercise in. And - get this - there's a snow advisory for tomorrow night. Great, just great.