Squirrel rescued from Winnipeg woman's toilet with BBQ tongs

A Winnipeg woman had to act fast after finding a furry home invader taking a bath in her toilet earlier this week.

Angela Campbell said she found a small squirrel floundering in her toilet early Wednesday morning after hearing a strange noise coming from the bathroom of her St. James-area home.

Campbell she was first woken up by her two dogs around 5 a.m. but couldnt figure out what was bothering the pair until hours later when she heard "big splashing in the toilet."

Campbell didn't know what she would find when she opened the lid of her toilet, so she carefully knocked on the sides of the bowl before lifting the lid.

When she finally summoned the courage, she flipped the lid to find a small, drenched squirrel grasping the sides of her toilet bowl.

So Campbell did what any sensible Winnipegger would dograbbed a pair of BBQ tongs from the kitchen and put the water-logged creature in her bathtub.

• Listen to Angela Campbell tell the story to CBC's Marilyn Maki in her own words

"It was just filthy. I didnt know how it could breathe because it stunk so bad," said Campbell.

So she gave it a quick bath before she tried to release it.

"It wasn't fighting. It just seemed to be relieved at first and then once it got in to the tub, it just was kind of in a daze," said Campbell. "I took a little water scooppouring water over it to rinse it off."

After a quick rinse-off, Campbell scooped the squirrel up with the tongs again and placed him on her patio.

Once she got the squirrel outside it started to make noise and scurried right back up the exterior of Campbells house.

She said it eventually found its way to a fence post with some tree coverage and sunlight to dry off.

Campbell said she had no idea how the squirrel got in her toilet but said the citys water and waste department was cleaning water mains on her street at the time.

Squirrel gets social media treatment

Just a day after being discovered soaking wet and stinkyin Campbell's toilet, the squirrel was already getting national exposure on social media sites.

A Twitter account for the tree-dweller was created and had a handful of followers Thursday afternoon. The account, @toiletsquirrel, professed the squirrel's love of "plumbing, swimming and exploration."

The first tweet from Wpg Toilet Squirrel? "Ever have one of those nights where you wake up soaking wet in a toilet and wonder what you did to lead you to that? #toiletsquirrelprobs"

The first instalment of a memealso popped up on a local graphic design website, Colourblind Graphic Design.

It's not clear whether or not the actual toilet squirrel endorsed the account or meme.