Goose Rescues Squirrel From Hotel Toilet

Belfast Telegraph: A British entrepreneur has told of his surprise at finding a squirrel in his toilet bowl.

Duncan Goose was in Malawi to check on the humanitarian aid projects funded by his company's One projects when he came to the animal's rescue.

The Edinburgh-born 42-year-old, whose company Global Ethics also produces One-branded toilet roll, got a shock when he lifted the toilet lid in his hotel room one night to discover the squirrel.

He said: "It was a real shock as my immediate reaction was that it was a rat and, particularly in developing countries, they carry lots of disease.

"I was concerned it was going to jump out and bite me, so I put the lid back down and left it for a minute as I wasn't sure what to do."

When he returned to lift the lid on the struggling animal, he realised it was a squirrel and promptly came to its rescue.

Mr Goose, who now lives in Kew, south west London, said: "In the end I put a hand towel down the toilet, allowed it to climb up, put it in a laundry basket, took it outside and released it back into the wild and it didn't seem too much the worse for wear so hopefully it's recovered from the experience and will go on to have a happy life devoid of toilet bowl experiences."

It was not the first time Mr Goose, brother of former Casualty actress Claire Goose, has had a run-in with a wild animal. He said: "I've had scorpions creep into my room, I've had to remove a very large spider in Australia and I once ran into a deer on my motorbike in Canada which was quite an experience - it was a mutual collision in the early hours of the morning - so my luck with animals is not the best."