“It’s easy to smile when you have a squirrel’s intellect.”
I’m outside. The sun was here earlier but has since disappeared behind a sea of clouds, varying gray clouds. None seem ominous. The breeze is strong and the air dry. I couldn’t bear the thought of going inside to write so I brought my laptop to the deck. It’s not a quiet day, but I can still hear the fountain and the birds at the feeders and the squirrels in the leaves. I can also hear little kids laughing and talking, a most unusual sound for here. The voices belong to the family next door, renting for the week. They speak Albania to one another, and it’s been interesting listening to a language I have never heard before. None of it is familiar. I went online and learned to say hello.
Today is a stay around the house day. Cloudy days invite the tourists to take to the road so I don’t. A few weeks ago I heard a local writer speak about her new book so I bought it, starting reading it and put it down after only a few pages. I got snotty I guess. I didn’t like all the grammatical errors. Today I’ll give it another go and try to ignore my standards for the English language. I’m holding off on the title for now. If I like it, I’ll let you know.
It was a showdown at the OK Corral this morning. The red squirrel and I went eye to eye, and he flinched and fled, but I found his antics pretty funny. He’d jump from one branch to another, stop and look right at me then jump to another branch, stop and look at me then jump again, always jumping near the feeder. This went on for about ten minutes until he realized I wasn’t going anywhere. It was then I watched him jump to the biggest tree in the yard, run across a huge branch and jump into the neighbor’s yard.
This squirrel and I have a long, unpleasant history. He is an ungrateful cur. Once I saw he’d caught his paw on the wire on the inside of the squirrel proof feeder, the inside where the seeds are, so I tried to push his foot clear. He went after me. I then used my phone to push his foot, and he was freed but he attacked my phone. He chirped at me over and over, and I knew he was mad. Many other times he’s been in the feeder but usually manages to escape when I come on the deck, but he didn’t the other day. I saw him and walked slowly and quietly to the feeder where he was chomping on the sunflowers seeds. He never saw or heard me so he was quite startled when I tapped the feeder. As he fell to the ground, he looked like a flying squirrel with his arms and legs straight out, but he landed just fine and took off only to return today.
I thinking I’m turning into the crazed squirrel lady. Soon I’ll be an urban legend.
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
Tags: squirrels
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
August 20, 2010 at 10:53 am
Naaah. One day you’ll snap and that particular squirrel might not continue to be an extant squirrel!
August 20, 2010 at 11:51 am
Rick,
Today he was most brazen and has been back twice since I wrote this. He is about three feet away on the rail of the deck and he stares. Wonder what he’s plotting.
August 20, 2010 at 11:15 am
Hi Kat,
I have both red and grey/black squirrels. I prefer the red ones right now because there are only two. They move so fast through the trees that it seems as if they are flying over the branches. They’re really cranky and highly territorial. Everything gets chased off, not just other squirrels, and if it’s too big to chase, they sit up there and swear at it until it leaves.
August 20, 2010 at 11:54 am
Caryn,
You squirrel’s cousin lives here. Mine came back twice and I curiously watched. The second time he even made it into the feeder despite my being just a few feet away.
I also have the gray squirrels but they can’t get into the feeders so they seem content to chase each other and eat acorns, the seeds which fall on the ground below the feeders and the fleece on my grill cover. Every now and then I put corn out for them but usually in the winter.
August 20, 2010 at 1:11 pm
It will be a legend long told about the war between the crazed squirrel lady and the squirrel 🙂 🙂 🙂
It´s fun how wild animals seems to hate that we help them when they get stuck. As if it was our fault 🙂 I remember my Jackdaw that I rescued when it had a broken wing. The first thing it tried was to poke out my eyes 🙂 🙂 But he chganged his mind after a couple of weeks and became real tame and started to talk like a parrot 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
August 20, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Christer,
Little kids will run by my house and avoid it on dark nights!
I guess your bird was afraid. I don’t think my squirrel has a bit of fear.
August 20, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Probably a silly question, but I’ll ask: have you ever tried just putting out a supply of seed for the squirrels, away from the feeder? Or maybe under it? When we were in Arlington, I noticed that if seed dropped to the ground when I was filling the feeder, the squirrels automatically defaulted to the seed on the ground, so I made it a practice. As long as the squirrels had “their” seed, they didn’t fool around with the acrobatics required for the bird feeder.
August 20, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Ralph,
Not only do I throw down seed but I also have a squirrel feeder on which I stick corn.
The gray squirrels can’t get at the seed in my feeders, only the red one can. It is small enough to get through the anti-squirrel mesh.
August 20, 2010 at 3:38 pm
the squirrels are busy planting winter food in the pots on my deck…little to they know that everything is dumped out and removed for winter….
August 20, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Greg,
They are devious and will find a solution, a place to stash their food!
August 20, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Kat, you got a thing for them squirrels up there. I loved the last paragraph, very funny. LOL. But you know the spawn Satans will win out over time so do what Ralph suggests . . . feed them and be done with it. I wish you luck but I’ve been there too and the almonds no one eats here in our family are fed to the squirrels in the front yard. They sit and wait for me.
August 20, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Z&Me,
I have always had a squirrel corn feeder in my yard, but they are ungrateful beasts! If they can get more, they will.
August 21, 2010 at 6:47 am
We feed birds all year long, but luckily have not had to contend with squirrels. I have read that putting cayenne pepper in with the seed discourages squirrels, as rodents don’t like the taste. Birds, however, don’t mind. I have no idea if it works, but it might be worth a try.
August 21, 2010 at 9:33 am
Thanks, Rita
I actually gave that a few tries but found you can fill the feeders if there is the slightest breeze and gloves have to be worn. I had pepper in my eyes once and I swear I could taste it for days. I even tried squirrel away. It is now only that one red squirrel causing me apoplexy!