How nutty! Montreal dad gets squirrel to yank out daughter's tooth

After six-year-old Mila Freiheit got her tooth yanked out by a drone last summer, she and her dad, David, wanted to raise the tooth-pulling stakes. And that meant recruiting a hungry, park-dwelling squirrel.

The Montreal father-daughter duo knew it wouldn't be easy. So they went to the city's Westmount Park early Wednesday morning armed with dental floss, a granola bar, a box of tissues and of course, a few cameras.

"We waited until the tooth was good and loose and we went to the park and devised this scheme," David Freiheit said. They tied one end of the dental floss to the loose tooth, and the other end to a piece of granola bar that was placed on a park bench.

Then they waited.

To their surprise, it didn't take long for a squirrel to take the bait and snatch the treat, bringing Mila's baby tooth — the one just left of her two front teeth — out with it.

They captured it all on camera and posted it to YouTube, where it has been viewed more than 90,000 times.

"We all knew it wouldn't work, but then it worked," the six-year-old told CBC News. "I was like, 'How did that work?'" 

David Freiheit said the park is known for its friendly squirrels: they had already started hovering soon after they set up at the park. He was worried the tooth would fall out before a squirrel even got to the granola bar.

Double digits from the tooth fairy

Soon after, Freiheit dropped his daughter off at school, where she brought the bloody tooth and showed her friends the video of the extraction.

"They were like, 'Your dad is crazy… why is the tooth so bloody?'" she said.

The pair had been brainstorming the idea ever since her last tooth came out. Their other ideas included using a bottle rocket or having their pet pug pull it out.

The pull earned the six-year-old $10 from the tooth fairy — double what she usually gets.

SquirrelTube? 

The family has a history of having squirrels star in their dad's quirky YouTube videos. His November 2014 video of a squirrel snatching his GoPro camera and running up a tree with it has been viewed 6.8 million times. 

Freiheit, an active YouTube user, has made about a dozen other squirrel videos since.

"They're cute. They are all over the place and people seem to love them," he said of the furry rodent.

"Every time we pass a dead squirrel on the road, we always stop and pay our respects."

• Squirrel study looks at wildlife in the city, University of Guelph researcher says​
• Pregnant squirrel trashes Montreal home and gives birth in sewing basket