It was a Darkin Stormy Night when the Demon Squirrel snuck down the back alley...
         Many people have asked me where the persona of the Demon Squirrel came from. Well, I'm glad you asked. It is quite a funny story.
         It all started one hot summer day about ten years ago. At the time I lived in a house on a short cul-de-sac in Dallas. I was sitting at my computer, working feverishly on a new short story when all of a sudden...BAM. The power went out. Now, I'm thinking to myself "I know I paid that electric bill on time, so what gives?"
         So I got up and looked out the window to find my neighbors from across the street standing out in their front yard looking toward the end of the street. Well, since I had already lost what I was writing when the power shut down my computer, and my curiosity had been piqued, I went outside to investigate.
         A quick consultation with my neighbors told me everyone's power was out. As we stood contemplating the reasons for the outage, two police cars squealed around the corner and slammed to a stop near the opening of the street. The police officers jumped out of their cars and ran to the house at the end of the street's front door.
         As you can imagine, we were all a bit shocked and rather curious at this turn of events. As we watched, the officers were joined by a fire truck and one more police car. The men from both vehicles rushed into the house at the end of the street.
         Before we could come up with a reason for this, two of the officers and a fireman ran out of the house, across the street and started pounding on another neighbor's door. My neighbor yelled that she was at work, which seemed to confuse the police men. They ran back across the street, and into the original house.
         Right after this, an Animal Control truck pulled up, parked in front of the house. The guy got out, grabbed some equipment out of a toolbox in the truck, and ran into the house.
         At this point we were all more than a little curious about what was going on. All sorts of scenarios were being exchanged; from terrorists to evil garden gnomes. (Okay, that one was my suggestion) Finally the police and firemen walked out of the house, followed by the Animal Control guy carrying a rather large moving sack. The AC guy placed the sack into a cage near the back of his truck, climbed in and drove away. The firemen followed him and the policemen stood around talking for a bit.
         It was too much for us would-be sleuths. We walked over to one of the officers and asked what had happened.
         The officer informed us, with a relatively straight face, a squirrel had chewed through the transformer wires and shorted out the transformer. He told us that the squirrel, which had had quite a shock when doing this, did not die. Instead, he shot off the transformer, flew through the air and landed on the head of our neighbor up the street, who was in her backyard doing some gardening. The squirrel was quite angry at this point and proceeded to rearrange her hairdo.
         While he didn't hurt her, the poor woman's screams prompted the neighbor behind her house to call the police convinced she was being killed. The woman was able to get the squirrel off of her head, and into a large trashcan she was using to hold leaves. She put the lid on the can, then a large rock on top to keep it closed. That's when she noticed the transformer the squirrel had shot off of was smoldering, hence the call to the fire department.
         Meanwhile, the poor dazed squirrel was doing laps inside the trashcan and making some pretty angry noises. That was why the Animal Control guy was called. It took the AC guy, two cops and a fireman to get that squirrel into the sack the AC guy carried out.
         As you can imagine, by the time the officer was done telling us what happened, we were laughing so hard we were crying. Right as the police were leaving, the electric company truck pulled up and the guy had the power on in a short time. A neighbor told me later the lady had called it a demon squirrel from hell.
         You know, the police never did tell us why they knocked on the neighbor across the street's door
         Hence, that is why I picked the persona Demon Squirrel. Just remember, when you are walking down the street one darkin stormy night....

ID: 1147573   (Rated: E) The Tree House  Step inside and see how a squirrel really lives. by Demon Squirrel of Doom!