Squirrels....love'm..hate'm

I have to talk about my latest battle at the 'homefront'. Being that I am unemployed and going to school full-time, I have the ability to spend my days at the house. I am enjoying my time with my cats while my wife is at work and also getting to know the wildlife that surrounds our little house in Campbell/San Jose. Noticing the hummingbirds enjoying our landscape was pretty interesting and also noticing little holes dug throughout our yard was not very interesting. I now notice after a few days that we have the privilege of being the new property owners of a family of squirrels. Yes....these guys run like gypsy's tree to tree until they feel comfortable enough to make one particular tree its resting place. This resting place happens to be our back-yard. The holes are from the little baby monsters figuring out that they can hide things in the ground. They are also munching on little twigs and branches like little beavers and have dropped all kinds of brush into our back-yard. There is now a squirrel city in this tree as all the nibbling was leading to the construction of new homes for the growing baby squirrels. A few days ago, I awoke to find that our tree-hung spider plant was laying upside down on the ground and the hanging plant holder was gone. As you will see in the pictures, I found it a day later 20 feet up in the tree. The squirrels wanted to make luxury sleeping quarters with the material the plant holder consisted of and getting it stuck on a branch while trying. Only to leave it at an unreachable spot at the top of the tree.

A few days later, I felt it would be a nice idea to get some bird feeders in the back-yard for the birds. I think it would be interesting to watch wildlife in your yard. What I forgot to think about was that sunflower seeds are a squirrels favorite. Almost like it could be sold on the squirrel black market for 'squirrel crack'. Maybe not quite like that...but you get the idea. The feeder only lasted 2 days until the squirrels leaped from the trees and held onto the cast-iron pole that the feeders were suspended from and ate the seed. Not only did they eat the seed....they were so tired of the balancing act they had to pull of each time, that one ate through the handle that allowed the bird feeder to hang. This action left the feeder in its most vulnerable location as the squirrels took advantage of the scattered seeds.

I am now trying to train my cats to attack the squirrels because of their nuisance behavior. However, I am an animal lover and began to construct a squirrel feeder so they could have their own little chow table and they can leave the bird feeders alone. I spend 2 hours constructing a squirrel chair that they can use to feed on corn. I will be sure to report their behavior in order to see if my plan to...'All get along' works. If not...back to training the cats! :-)