Non-jihadist squirrel episode

Squirrel Imitates Santa, Suffers Bloody Paws as Consequence
TWO RIVERS, Wis. (AP) — A squirrel got a fiery surprise when it apparently got curious about a chimney.
The squirrel fell down a chimney at a Two Rivers home and landed in a fire in a fireplace Monday night, said Two Rivers Assistant Fire Chief Gary Shavlik.
The squirrel escaped the fire and ran around the house, Shavlik said.
Firefighters later caught it and called Wildlife of Wisconsin, an agency that helps wild animals. The squirrel suffered from bloody paws.

Reminds me of an incident from my college days. A few of us were renting out the basement apartment of a local resident, and it had a fireplace. There were about 5 of us, all rugby players, sitting around after a game and imbibing heavily (in celebration of a victory I'm sure, but it would have been the same situation had we lost) when a squirrel came popping out of the fireplace and landed on the floor right in the middle of us. There was just a brief moment of eye contact with all of us, and then---envision a scene and the music from the Benny Hill Show---all heck broke loose.

The little rodent had us going for about 15 minutes chasing him over every square inch of the place. At one point he was in the bathroom on the shower rod, he took a leap, landed on top of my head, and then continued on his merry way. We eventually did corner him and throw a towel over him. We just took him outside and let him go.

I have lots of other squirrel stories from a house I lived at after college as well, but none were as fun as that incident.

(p.s. it just dawned on me after reading it again, these bozos called the fire department to come and capture a squirrel. How much did that cost their local community. Now, Wildlife of Wisconsin will spend thousands of dollars rehabilitating this squirrel; they will then let it go back into the wild, with lots of fanfare I'm sure, and probably within 24 hours this squirrel will have been eaten by an owl or some other predator; the circle of life)