Squirrels will find a way

©2015 Lydia Hinshaw

The backyard thief

 TUCSON, AZ -- For 11 days we've enjoyed watching doves and quail and other bird life in the back yard of the house where we're house-sitting.

 Back home in Florida, we've long since given up on bird feeding because of the continually escalating engineering battles with the neighborhood squirrels, who can always find a way to get at the birdseed.  It is demeaning to be outwitted by a tiny animal, over and over again.

 For 11 days we rarely saw a squirrel in the yard, and never saw one on a bird feeder.  I had begun to believe that the squirrels here aren't very smart.

 Tuesday the battle began.  Twice we've had to go out there and chase off a thief wrapped around a feeder we've had for about four days. He was having no easy time of it, but he was trying, and he was preventing birds from getting to the food.

 No more than an hour before I shot this photo, I had been amazed to see Cooper the dog set out in halfhearted pursuit of a squirrel on the ground.  The squirrel, who couldn't remember how to escape the fenced yard (note the chicken-wire on the lower part of the fence), was in a panic, squeaking in fear for his life.

 Cooper was moving fast enough to terrify the squirrel, but not fast enough that I couldn't catch him.  I picked him up and lugged him back inside the house.  He didn't protest.  Whatever primeval instinct sent him chasing the squirrel may not have included instructions on what to do if he caught it.