An Unexpected Find= Secret Fears Confirmed

want to know a secret

Guess my fears all started when I was young. My Dad was working on a wall switch when a garden snake appeared.  Never really thought about it.. but now looking back I had always had this fear of snakes or other animals coming up the drains or walls.

Not too long ago I came across a live snake in the basement storage room( the old sewing room). We had an earthquake and I assumed it came in when the house lifted. Allowing the door to lift and the snake to enter. Quickly I partitioned the neighbor boy to catch it. We released it in the outside.

Now I seldom take a bath due to my fear. Showers are my option of choose. Never thought too much about the toilets. Although after my term in the Military and the outdoor latrines, the fears of critters biting my but was present in my thoughts.

Indoor systems only had me weary of snake and rats. After all with the movies like "Ben" and "snakes on the plane" how does one not think about it. Now here comes the reality of it all.....

Yesterday started out pretty good. I had made  coffee and while it was brewing took a look out side. It was misting a bit and I notice a squirrel tearing at the canvas gazebo netting.  Shoo it away and it ran on the roof. Hubby was upstairs getting ready for work. Got a cup of coffee and a magazine and headed for the bathroom. Now you know what that meant. So, lifted the toilet seat and saw something looking back at me. Could not believe it, My Fear had come to reality. Put the seat down quickly but, just couldn't comprehend what a saw. Lifting the seat again, Yes it was a dead squirrel. I calmly yelled screamed up the stairs to hubby. He came a little bit too slowly for me! Anyway I told him to get it out.

He was shocked to see it. Assumed is came in through the vent pipe. Although he said it had been in the vent/ sewer system for a while. He felt it was forced up by the pressure of all the other water waste. You know the other flushing toilets, the shower, dish washer and washing machine.

Now I know it was not there the night before. We use that toilet more than the rest in the house. I have four bathrooms. So there you have it... My fears came true...Now I will always keep the toilet seats down and haven't used that toilet room since the incident. I know the possibility of it happening again is slim.  The only thing is I can not get the thought of it all out of my head. I keep all the toilet seat down and look before using any now.

I did some research to see if this is common and to understand how a squirrel can get into a closed toilet. Found that this can happen but is rare. Found the vents on the roof can make some curious squirrels  investigate and once they are in the system it is hard for them to get out. They get trapped and end up drowning.  Make their bodies needing to exit and that can be in the toilet since it has the largest pipes.

Thinking back we had some problems with stopped up toilets.  Used a plunger  to clear them. We also had been on vacation for a couple weeks. Notice a dead squirrel under the front bushes earlier in the week. The Squirrels were running on the roof a lot. Therefore we are pretty sure it went in the vent pipes. Guess I will check into getting some type of vent cover to prevent this from happening again.

Hubby wants to trap the squirrels and remove them from our area. We did this before and it worked out well. Relocating them to a park further away. Daughter says we should put Bear mace out to deter  them. I have use this before and it seem to work as well. Maybe I will do all of these.

Now my Fears have no gone away. Even with the explanation of how it got there, I still have this feeling of  the unexpected happening again. Fears confirmed  and now that a reality is associated with them. My Fears are more real.  Will have to work on calming them down, so I can use the main toilet again.