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This article was published 13/6/2013 (2655 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Most people prefer not to look at the contents of their toilet, but a St. James woman had no choice when the contents of her toilet tried to escape.

Angela Campbell said her dogs were acting strange early Wednesday morning. She started hearing loud noises coming from the toilet.

SUPPLIED A squirrel struggles to get out of a toilet in a house in Winnipeg, Wednesday.

"It basically sounded like a bowling ball flopping inside of a toilet. The things I was envisioning in my head were monsters," she said.

When she went and opened the toilet, she discovered not monsters, but a squirrel clinging to the bowl and smelling extremely bad, she said.

"It basically was caked with whatever was inside the pipes, from wherever it was coming from," she said.

Campbell said she removed the squirrel out using barbecue tongs and washed the creature in the bathtub. The animal was very docile, she said.

"It was pretty weak. It didn’t seem to put up much of a fuss," she said.

After she let it rest for a while, she took it outside to release it. Once she let it out, Campbell said it started crying and another squirrel ran to the house.

"(It was) only a foot or two from where we were standing. It didn’t even care that we were there," she said.

The aggressive squirrel then climbed the house where the toilet squirrel was, she said, and eventually the toilet squirrel went off the house to a fence post that Campbell said had tree coverage and sunlight.

Campbell said she called the city and was told they would look into it. She’s also called a plumber to take a look at the toilet. She said she’s not sure where the toilet squirrel came from, but she said she had received a notice of water main cleaning on her street.

"They also can get through the roof. But I’m not sure," she said.

Despite never having dealt with toilet squirrels before, Campbell said she wasn’t scared, only a little shocked when dealing with this one.

"I did grow up in the country. I’m not scared of wild creatures. I’m more of a country bumpkin at heart," she said.

The memorable event now behind her, Campbell said she’s also come up with a memorable name for what she and the squirrel went through.

"I was thinking about that movie, The Shawshank Redemption, where he crawls through the sewer," she said.

"I was thinking Squirrelshank Redemption."

oliver.sachgau@freepress.mb.ca