Sunday, November 12, 2006

The Brave New Squirrel



Our house is one of few in our neighborhood without cats or dogs...so, we are a frequent 'second place' for birds and squirrels. Last week we remembered to buy a *huge* bag of unsalted peanuts from Costco to encourage a close connection with 'wild life'.
The day after we began our little treat distribution C heard a very light tapping sound coming from my studio. Upon investigation, notices that there is a squirrel at the sliding glass door, peering in and clicking its paw on the glass, shifting a bit, looking again, and then tapping again...."where are my nuts?" I keep hoping for this to happen while I am actually in the studio to see this as well. So, I tried this morning, putting out the bait -- on the table and the deck itself. First, I made sure there were squirrels in sight, there are always birds around, squirrels, not always. My observation, the squirrels are afraid of the birds. I believe the score was birds 25 - squirrels 0. The brave squirrel that knocks - gets as many peanuts that it can handle!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hah what a cheeky little devil! I've got shelled peanuts in the cupboard I think I'll just scatter under the tree in the yard for the birds and squirrels. Thanks for reminding me to put it out.

Anonymous said...

you're playing with fire when you encourage squirrels...alls I'm sayin'

also, I like how on your list of things you like, it looks like you like "salad massages"!!!

that was a sentence with a lot of "likes."

lisa said...

as an animal lover, i say don't listen to cordelia and bring on the squirrels! who knows, you might even be able to coax a few into coming inside and hanging out with you for awhile...who knows, eventually, you could have hundreds of them living with you!!!

i look forward to that, i like squirrels.

celeste said...

hmm. lisa, we won't be going quite that far. we had dinner at a congregant's house the other night - they mentioned that a neighbor of theirs has the squirrels in their yard trained to come in the open living room door to climb up the seated gentleman's leg to get peanuts out of his hand!
eh - *no*.
of course, i celebrate his right to do that. and to be proud that he's trained the squirrel to do that.
no. not happening in our house.

Daisy said...

Do you get bunnies, too? We are the only house on our block without a dog, so the wild neighborhood bunnies love us. Fortunately, we love them, too.

celeste said...

daisy,
no bunnies, though now i want them.
you've had snow, i so miss snow! when i lived in wisconsin (as a residence life person) i told my staff that i put up my christmas decorations up at first snowfall. one year the christmas decorating began before halloween! i do not miss the frozen nose hairs though!
blessings,
celeste