Okay...maybe a Volkswagen. We have had a terrible time time with rodents this year. The going theory is that after the heat dome our evergreens produced a tremendous amount of cones in the trees' bid to survive. Some tree tops were even breaking last year from the weight of the cones, especially Spruce trees. The squirrels contributed to this phenomenon by pruning the evergreens. This year there were hardly any cones. So all of the squirrels, chipmunks etc. that feasted last year and had lots of healthy litters, created a boom in the population. A population that did not have the cones to sustain it this year. We had an assault of squirrels. I live trapped and relocated well over twenty at last count. Sometimes I was catching four a day. They were driven many km away to the woods. Predators had a field day - fox, owls, ermine, pine martins, hawks and sparrow hawks. We also had the peak of a five year cycle for mice and voles. Things have calmed down now, however I'm still catching between two and three mice every day on the open porch. I trapped nine pack rats this year, which is also unheard of. I have one more hanging around the woodshed that I hope to catch soon before it finds the house or barn. I have only three regular squirrels now. One in particular is so so plump. And he is very pretentious. He will sit on the ledge of the big window and look inside. And he waits for a bird bun ( full of nuts and seeds for the Grey Jays). Once the birds have left, he has difficulty but manages to climb the railing. He kind of HEAVES himself up on the top rail. He's awfully cute. I hope he keeps behaving so he doesn't have to hit the squirrel highway. My kids call him The Volkswagen. That's the biggest squirrel tummy I've ever seen.
That is a cute little guy. With that extra weight, he ought to come through the winter oké. No chance that animal is pregnant is there?
We wondered about that too, but it is the wrong time of the year...but I'm sure stranger things have happened.
He (she?)'s a cutie for sure! If he fell of the fence, he'd just keep rolling for a while. That's a lot of squirrel relocating. I hope they appreciate your efforts. I relocated some raccoons one year. They did not appreciate my effort, and let me know in no uncertain terms. I was kind of scared of them. Last night U awaked to a yeowling that sounded cat-like but much deeper and prolonged. I wondered if it was a cougar. I won't try to relocate that LOL.
Mel, your chubby squirrel may be cute, but don't trust it. We had a cute chubby squirrel one year, and before we knew it we had an entire family of them in our attic! They are very destructive!
I had a pet squirrel once. I was out hiking and heard a sound, looked up in this wispy saplinf and there was a baby squirrel. He was very skinny and had fly blow, or wolf on its skin. He just kept squeaking. I looked around and saw a destroyed drey. I waited about an hour at the base of the sapling and had a sarnie. Finally I squeaked back at the squirrel and eventually it came within reach. He let me take him into my hand. It felt so cold and was shivering from fear or the cold. I Gave it a drop or two of my water, slipped it into my shirt pocket and eventually went home. I was allowed to keep it, clean off the fly blow and build a sizeable cage with a limb in it. I fed it warm milk several times a day and it reached puberty. It would sit on my shoulder at night and watch the telly. One day my parents told me it was time to turn it loose. I was sad, but understood. I took it to the woods and let it go. I never saw it again.
Aww Sjoerd. That's so sweet that you saved him and returned him to the woods. That is a wonderful memory. We had a pet squirrel too when I was growing up. My dad worked at a sawmill, and found a baby squirrel at the base of a cut tree. He was a giant man - 6"4 and over 300 lbs. He brought the squirrel home and we fed it with an eye dropper. I still remember how tiny it looked in my Dad's big hands. We didn't have an outdoor cage, so he had run of the house for a while. He liked to go up the back of a loose shirt, climb up your back and hide in your hair at the base of your neck. Things got pretty exciting if we forgot to tell a guest hahaha. There was lots of screaming and running about. When he was bigger and could fend for himself, we let him go at a friends Lake Resort. When we went camping there a month or so later, our camper door was open. This squirrel came running in, looked around, said hello and left. I wonder if he ever ran up the back of anyone's shirts while they were camping. ;-)
you are right for sure Netty. "rats with tails" is what they are referred to around here. It is too late in the year for this to be a pregnant squirrel - plus there are no "lady bits" . It's just a sloth squirrel. If he continues to behave and live in the forest beside the house he can hang around. If he doesn't he will get a ticket punched for the train station. Hopefully he behaves. The other's chase him about quite a bit, so maybe he will lose a little pudge.
Do you have cougars where you live Daniel? That's never a good feeling. You know...about eight years ago we swore we heard a big cat screaming over and over, moving about in the dark. Even a neighbouring farm heard it . I phoned a retired Conservation Officer friend and he said it was a fox. I couldn't believe it. It sounded so much like a cat screaming. The cougars do make a similar sound. Keep Master Rufus close by.
I think our noise was a cougar. I keep Rufus inside at night. The ducks were in an uproar when I heard that, too. They were OK in the am. My neighbors lost their Pomeranian to a cougar a few years ago.
I'm sorry to hear that. They are the one animal here that I cannot wrap my bravery around. I'm glad the guard ducks were on guard. My neighbour lost his Pointer , around noon, while he was working in the yard. He was about the size of a black lab. It was tracked by conservation under the porch of a nearby cabin. The cat was still there. Both times my dogs were attacked it was day time - once around 4 pm and the other around 1:00 pm. They were all big dogs. Keep your caution up for a few days my friend. They don't always just pass through - sometimes they spend a few days, sometimes a week if they have a deer, and then move on. If you have a lot of deer and big cats, that will always be a worry with Master Rufus.
