NEMESIS

PERFECT LANDING

I think I’ve met my Nemesis. If not, then a critter with a strange sense of humour. A real tease.

Recently, I said to Sue, “I can see why so many people around here shoot them.”

I was talking about the red squirrels. They are noted for being home wreckers and we may have had one zapped in our home last March. This incident happened on a Saturday morning. 

​Buster, Sue and I were quietly lounging in our Seniors’ Christian Science reading room when suddenly we heard a loud noise. It sounded like a power transformer blowing up inside our wall and it didn’t take us long to realize that half the outlets in our living room had been invalidated.

GHOSTLY FOREST TRAIL

It was lucky we were home because I was able to ascertain which fuse was affected and then shut it down. The probability of having a fire was great if I didn’t snuff the live wires. 

​We phoned an electrician, who arrived to tell us that it would be very costly to locate the affected wire and the fried critter and it would be best if we just ran an extension cord around the living room.

​The electrician explained that the critters like to live in the walls which are close to heat. In our case, close to our wood stove. It made sense and if the poor critter hadn’t been teething he might still be enjoying our wood stove.

NOW A SQUIRREL FEEDER

So, back to the red squirrel, who likes to sit in our bird feeder, and enjoy twisting and turning in the wind while hogging the bird seed so that the birds can’t have any.

You see, one afternoon, I noticed that the squirrel was riding cowboy on the moose skull we have sitting on our deck railing. He likes to chew the calcium that’s in the skull.

RIDE EM COWBOY

ENJOYING THE VIEW

And I swear that he’s not really trying to get in. I think he’s just doing it to torment me. To test me. To see if what I write in my blogs about my concern for the squirrels is really true.

MORE WOOD TO STACK

And I do worry about them. Why I even, when we got to the last row of firewood this April which would expose the squirrel’s nest, climbed up on a ladder, and built a little place for the squirrel to make a new nest. I even went one step beyond just normal concern and cut the arm off one of my Cape Breton-dinner-jacket-bush shirts. Because it was stuffed with nice warm and cozy insulation. I laid it next to the squirrel Ikea nest kit so the squirrel would have proper building materials. Sue had to actually stop me from drawing a little instruction sheet so the squirrel would know which part went where. So the little buggers can’t say I don’t care.

INCOMING CLOUDS

By the way, I have found quite a few nests located in the woodshed. I just tossed out a pair of running shoes. Hardly used. The tongue of the one having provided excellent nesting material for a mouse or a squirrel.

​Am I being tested? Maybe, but I know I’m not going to shoot the little devil. There’s enough eco-destruction going on in the name of progress and necessity. 

CAMPFIRE ON OCEAN BEACH

​

However, I did touch on the squirrel shooting issue with a hiking buddy who said,"You can't shoot the squirrel. Not after all the stuff you've written in your blogs about caring for the welfare of the squirrels."

Yep, the little tease has me by the proverbial shorts and if he keeps on having fun at our expense I may just have to get down-right tough. I may just have to go out and spend more money and buy metal screening to cover the fibreglass screening that now covers our deck.

I can be tough when I have to be.

MIDDLE RIVER MEDITATION SPOT