An Update On Our Van Tenants

My previous post humbly stated that our van had a rodent problem. We have now uncovered the identity of the tenant. Walking out to our van to go pick up my daughter from a class, one of my children spied a squirrel on the dash sitting like a statue of the Virgin Mary in a low-rider.

Busted.

My eldest daughter squealed in delight thinking this would be her next pet and went running to open the passenger door. As she did, we witnessed the squirrel dart over to the driver's side where the pedals were and squirm into a hole near the gas pedal. The squirrel was now inside our dashboard. Being pressed for time, we had no choice but to take our squirrel with us and pray that it would not gnaw away at my feet while driving.

Upon turning on the van, it became very apparent in the 102 degree weather, that our air conditioning was now not working......thanks to Mr. Butthead, the squirrel. It could only be suspected that this pest had chewed through some wires to accomplish this.

Today, we took our van in to get it looked at. What was found was a squirrel's nest inside the dash and chewed wires. There was approximately $225 of damage. We were told by the mechanic that he gets about one case like this a week and that we were lucky because most of the damage he sees is usually above $600. It was advised that no windows nor doors should ever be left open because of this......ever.

So, people, this is one more story of our van that will be added to the museum of memories and one more story that when I hand over those keys, although uninvited, will lend to the tears shed when walking away. My van is still my all-time hero.