TOY: Relevant to Toyota 4x4's ? was: Squirrel SABOTAGE! (long, gruesome story)

["M. D. Smith V" <deesmith@xxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric L..." <cal556@hotmail.com>
To: <toyota@4x4Wire.com>; <toy4x4@moab.off-road.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 9:43 PM
Subject: TOY: Squirrel SABOTAGE! (long, gruesome story)


| Hi all,
| 
| Last sunday my 4Runner would not run.  The engine would turn over and would
| immediately die.  I opened the hood and found that a squirrel had built a
| nest inside, which seemed kinda odd since the vehicle had only been parked
| for 2 days.  You can see some digital photos at:
| 
|  http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1546934&a=11729060&f=0
| 
| Later after removing the nest, I found all the damage caused by the
| squirrel.  It chewed through the ground wire to the solenoid resistor, some
| wire on that thingy next to the hood hinge (what is that thing anyway?), the
| windshield washer line, and some of the hoses in the emissions control
| system.  I just had to patch those wires, and my 4Runner is running fine
| again.
| 
| Unfortunately (for the squirrel), the squirrel was inside it's nest while I
| was trying to start my 4Runner and it got it's little squirrel arm mangled
| in the alternator belt, causing the belt to slip off the pulley.  The
| squirrel was just crouching (in pain I would imagine) underneath the 4Runner
| so I decided the most humane thing to do would be to kill the squirrel since
| it would otherwise die a slow painful death from infection since it's arm
| was nearly ripped off.   (If you don't want to read about violent acts
| against a squirrel, you should stop reading here).  Now if I were in Texas,
| I could have just taken the N.A.A mini .22 revolver out of my pocket and
| shot the squirrel in the head.  But I am in Illinois temporarily, and don't
| have any guns with me, so I thought I would kill the squirrel with my bare
| hands.  So I grab the squirrel by the neck intending to crush it's throat.
| Now the squirrel did not really want to die at this point and squirmed and
| resisted.  Well I guess the neck crushing wasn't working, so I slammed the
| squirrel on the ground and then slashed it's throat with my Microtech
| Mini-SOCOM knife.  A lot of blood came out of the squirrel, and it finally
| died.
| 
| 
| Eric Liu
| '88 4Runner

==> Hey,
what do the "details" of the squirrel's demise have to do with TOYOTA 4wd's?
Am I *missing* some "valuable" lesson here?  :- o
Happy Trails,

Dee
M.D. Smith, V   deesmith@hiwaay.net  TLCA # 7039  RCRC # 31
Huntsville, Alabama  USA