Squirrel gets revenge on Ford Focus

When John McCandless couldn't get his 2001 Ford Focus running after it had sat idle for a month, he didn't think much about it. Not until he opened the hood.

“It wouldn't start,” says John, 37. “The lights would come on but it wouldn't even turn over. It seemed like a dead battery.”

So he waited until that evening, after borrowing a battery charger, to check it out.

“I opened the hood,” John says. “It was a mess up there.”

Tucked between the battery and the fender rested the deep nest of a squirrel.

“That's where it's been living,” John says. “That's not natural.”

No, it's a squirrel taking advantage of man. Because the nesting material is insulation from the divider between the engine and the passenger compartment.

“It's from the firewall,” says his wife, Esther, 36, also examining the damage. “We thought it was building another nest.

“I called the insurance company,” she adds. “They said it was bizarre.”

But, give a squirrel enough time and ...

The car was parked April 8 when Esther, a supervisor at the customer service desk at Kmart East, had rotator cuff surgery. She wasn't allowed to drive; still isn't.

John, who works in the Paetec network management center in Hiawatha, usually takes the Focus. But, with his wife laid up, he drove her 2008 Toyota Matrix. The Focus sat.

Once, John spotted a squirrel running from the car. He sees them all the time. So what?

“I started it once,” John says, “between now and then, just to let it run for a few minutes.”

Starting the car is not recommended now. Not until it's checked out and deemed safe.

We've all seen dead squirrels along the road, victims of the ol' run and get hit. In this case, a squirrel seems to have gotten its revenge.

When John McCandless couldn't get his 2001 Ford Focus running after it had sat idle for a month, he didn't think much about it. Not until he opened the hood.

“It wouldn't start,” says John, 37. “The lights would come on but it wouldn't even turn over. It seemed like a dead battery.”

So he waited until that evening, after borrowing a battery charger, to check it out.

“I opened the hood,” John says. “It was a mess up there.”

Tucked between the battery and the fender rested the deep nest of a squirrel.

“That's where it's been living,” John says. “That's not natural.”

No, it's a squirrel taking advantage of man. Because the nesting material is insulation from the divider between the engine and the passenger compartment.

“It's from the firewall,” says his wife, Esther, 36, also examining the damage. “We thought it was building another nest.

“I called the insurance company,” she adds. “They said it was bizarre.”

But, give a squirrel enough time and ...

The car was parked April 8 when Esther, a supervisor at the customer service desk at Kmart East, had rotator cuff surgery. She wasn't allowed to drive; still isn't.

John, who works in the Paetec network management center in Hiawatha, usually takes the Focus. But, with his wife laid up, he drove her 2008 Toyota Matrix. The Focus sat.

Once, John spotted a squirrel running from the car. He sees them all the time. So what?

“I started it once,” John says, “between now and then, just to let it run for a few minutes.”

Starting the car is not recommended now. Not until it's checked out and deemed safe.

We've all seen dead squirrels along the road, victims of the ol' run and get hit. In this case, a squirrel seems to have gotten its revenge.

I am saddened that Keith Hastings, the Waukon man who wore a suit every day, whether he was cleaning house or going out for coffee or mowing the lawn, has died.

“Keith put on his last suit yesterday,” wrote his good friend, Dominick Damiano in an e-mail. “He passed on Friday from a brain tumor.”

That was a week ago today. He was 86.

We met Keith last September, a small but jovial man who sold men's clothes in Waukon for more than half a century. He bought more than 150 suits in his lifetime.

In good health then, he still had eight suits in his closet and wore one as he climbed aboard his riding lawn mower.