I hate squirrels. They have bedeviled me for years as we have tried to feed the birds around our houses. We resorted to various squirrel defenses over the years with limited success. One of the most fun ones was a bird feeder that had a battery-operated spinner that would throw the squirrels off the feeder when they stepped on it. It was fun to see them tossed 10 feet or so to the ground, but in the end, they would always win. You see, squirrels are very persistent, and batteries only last so long. So we got to see the squirrels happily throw them selves around until the battery died and then gorge themselves at will. Damn!
At our current house, our bird feeder has a lockout which closes the feeder holes if anything heavy such as a squirrel lands on it, so it seem so work fairly well, although the squirrels don't give up. My new nemeses are the raccoons, which are much more voracious than the squirrels. They simply pull the feeder up from our deck railing with their paws and empty it in a single night. So over the last few years, my emnity has been focused on raccoons rather than squirrels. I won't go into details about how I have battled these perfidious creatures, but to suffice it to say, I have come to some mild accommodation with the squirrels.
Tonight, as I sat on on our Adirondack chair overlooking the Merrimac River at sunset, I noticed a squirrel under my chair. Our cat, Sophie, was lying nonchalantly nearby just observing the squirrel. I saw that it was a baby squirrel, and it kept running back and forth under my chair. After a while, I looked down at it, and it was just looking up at me. How cute! What? I can't believe what I did next. I actually put my hand down and petted this cute little creature. What has come over me? Am I mad? It scampered off into the woods then, but I was sitting there thinking, what the f*ck, I hate these things, don't I? Well, now I don't know what I think. I think perhaps that age has a way of mellowing one into taking a lot of sharp edges off of some of the strong opinions that one once held. Not completely however. I still hate raccoons.
We just came back from a wonderful visit with my college friend, Bob, in Seattle. I'm still feeling really good, although I'm sleeping a lot. Next Tuesday, I go in to the Farber for my monthly checkup and Zometa infusion. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will still be in remission. So far, so good.
Looks like you have gone squirrely in your old age. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWow, can I relate to the "Battle of the Squirrels". We have finally found that the one thing that works, no matter what type of feeder we use, is a squirrel proof feeding station pole with a baffle. As long as it is 10 feet from anything they might jump from, they can't make it up the pole, past the baffle, to get at the feeders! We hang our hummingbird feeder, suet, thistle seed, and deluxe songbird mix, and the birds eat happily undisturbed! Win for us!!
ReplyDeleteHoping your results show continued remission!