[lumberjim]

yeah....i don't see how i'd get it out of the cage and into something i could freeze. I'd prefer to squeeze it, but i would be afraid it would escape when i reached in to get it....

for those that are appalled by the prospect....

If you release him somewhere else, and that animal has any diseases, (and they all do) you have just moved those disease(s) that much further. You moved that animal much faster and further than Mother Nature would, and in the process, perhaps affecting other animals quicker, making for more carriers and vectors of diseases that can affect you and me, your children and your pets too. (Don't forget, after handling ANY animal wild, domestic or whatever, WASH YOUR HANDS with soap and water!)

Besides, if you DO let that squirrel go, you don't think he's going to stay in the woods/park/forest do you? Not for one New York Minute, he's not! He's going to head for another structure. He might even find his way back to YOUR place, you can't be sure unless you take him miles and miles, in a zig-zag pattern. Even then, squirrels sometimes find their way back. Kind of a tiresome ordeal if you have to relocate a half dozen squirrels or more. Especially since most of them will perish anyway, in a far worse way than you could probably devise.

And don't think "he'll be happy" because you took him to the woods/park/forest where there are lots of other squirrels. Believe me when I tell you that ALL the squirrels will be unhappy. There is no squirrel, including his own mother, that will welcome him. There's just no way in the world he's going to be able to establish his very own territory, so he's not going to stay where you dropped him. He'll be chased out post haste, he'll just "head for the light" - someone's house - find some flaw, then find his way in, BINGO, instant squirrel problem. (Even though I use the term "he," it is just as often, or even more so, that the females do this.)