I'm thinking the fox has a built in brush. Two birds and a squirrel with one stone.

I hope Zoe isn't still drinking her tea

Nah it's gone 4 o clock I'm on the hard stuff now

Not sure if that would be better or worse up the nose than tea

I like the idea of the fox, if there is no movement send a raccoon up after fox it seems a logical idea that I have heard somewhere before...............................

Send up a ferret?

Place a speaker face up in the grate...and blast a Celine Dion number...

I choked on some rice and dhal when I read about the spaniel.

Flederman says one of you holds a sack in front of the fireplace opening, the other gets up on the roof and shove a chimney sweeping brush down the chimney this will push the squirrel out and you catch it in the bag.

I've forgotten my cunning plan

Simply set a live trap in front of the chimney baited with squirrel food, shroud from the mantlepiece to the trap, climb on the roof with the 22 and start shooting down the chimney. Either the squirrel gets blasted and you can feed it to the spaniel or it flees into the trap and you can cart it away.

Rather than a mere 22 I'd suggest an AK47. Much cleaner job and it sends a message to all the other local critters.

Not something that falls readily to hand, an AK47.

Not for you or I, but maybe in the Richmond Hill 'Hood, an AK's are everywhere?

Squirrel is still in residence so I am thinking this may be the best option. It has a small bowl of nuts (unsalted) and some water in the fireplace - might as well make it comfy. The dog is now exhausted after a day of chimney climbing, much excitement and a two hour walk which was intended to give the squirrel some dog free time to evacuate.

I believe a squirrel on the loose in a house can do a lot of damage...so I would keep the dog out of the way and concentrate on trying to get the squirrel out of your house. Good luck.

I bet it can't do as much damage as a squirrel loose in the house with a spaniel in pursuit! Happily there is a door on the fireplace so the squirrel is contained until its escape can have adult, human supervision.