Squirrel !!!

This evening turned into a surprise just shy of dusk. But first, let me set the stage...

The big old maple in our back yard was a busy meeting place of the local squirrels. That is until Ditto moved in a few years ago. It became Ditto's daily routine to look for squirrels messing around on the ground around the tree and when she would spot one, the chase would be on. She would fire out her doggie door and zing out to the tree, at which time, any squirrel in the vicinity would frantically seek higher ground. That, usually being the tree. Sometimes they would spoil things and head for the privacy fence, but if they chose the tree, Ditto had them. Or so she thought. She would circle the tree standing up on her hind legs, forepaws on the tree, barking away. But, with time, Ditto slowed down as she became older and sicker until finally, it was just too much exertion for her. It got to where she would just lay in the window and watch them take over the yard. Izzy, Stephen's dog, would occasionally visit and put fear back into the hearts of the squirrels, driving them to the neighbors' trees. But, Izzy would then go home and the squirrels would come back. After Ditto left us, the squirrels became downright brazen.

Entrance, stage right, Mary and Frances. Their training started slowly, but it wasn't long before they both realized squirrels were vermin to be dealt with. The pups soon learned about the tree and the role it played in this little show. It became their daily fun chore to run out as fast as they could and chase the evil squirrels up the tree. And, like with Ditto, the squirrels sometimes would make it to the fence to run along the top to the corner utility pole where they could gain more height. There they would sit and scold the pups while the pups, gleefully, scampered about watching the squirrel closely. But, when the squirrel chose the tree, the squirrels found themselves surrounded with two yapping white threats jumping up on the tree. The squirrel population began to dwindle as they started to find another yard and tree. With two yard guards, it just wasn't worth it. But, then there was a new batch of young squirrels who weren't familiar with the pups...yet.

Now, during this nice fall weather, we have been propping our breezeway door open a little as well as the door into our "big room". This allowed the pups quick access in and out of the big room which was pretty critical during house training. 

The breezeway door and our little patio with the big room windows on the right.

That was the setup this evening. Both doors propped open a little, Joyce and the pups hanging out in the big room. A couple of young squirrels came hopping up to our little patio just out the breezeway door, directly in the pups' view out the big room windows. They both went tearing out the big room door then on out the breezeway door, startling the squirrels. One made it for the back yard tree. The other ran up the side of the house and hopped onto the top of the slightly open breezeway door. Both pups had the tree surrounded, yapping wildly at the trespasser, neither noticing the one on top of the door. So, it sat up there getting more and more frantic as to whether or not to make a run for it. But, it couldn't figure out how to get back down without jumping all the way to the ground. And, if it did that, the path to the tree was blocked by those terrifying pups. By now, the pups had decided they had punished the squirrel that had run up the tree quite enough and had headed back toward the house. It was too much for the squirrel on the door. He made a dive for the ground landing near the birdbath and ran to the corner of the sunroom. That action triggered the pups back into action. The squirrel saw them coming and ran up the brick veneer at the corner. I lost sight of him then, but after some noise and barking around the corner, the squirrel came screaming back around the corner and ran along the base of the sunroom wall straight into the open breezeway door...with two streaks of white right behind him. The squirrel ran into the sunroom which made me think, "Oh, no!" For those unfamiliar with our sunroom, let me just say there is a lot of "stuff" in there. I had a quick mental picture of how I was going to have to capture that critter to get it out of there. Where were my leather gloves? But, the squirrel spun around the room and ran right back through the breezeway on past me standing there laughing and into the big room. Again, for those unfamiliar, the big room has a lot of "stuff" too. Mainly two sofas, three recliners, and lots of other furniture pieces. After all, we do call it the big room. Anyway, both pups were hot on the squirrel's tail. First, it ran past Joyce and behind one of our wicker chairs. Not finding safe haven there, it ran out and got under a recliner, or rather inside it. The pups were circling the chair, digging at the floor trying to get under it, but couldn't. So, I laid the chair on its side to let the pups chase the squirrel out. Finally, it fired out of there, made a few laps around the room, right into the grip of Mary. It didn't take Mary too long to put the critter out of its misery. Frances wanted in on it, but Mary ran outside with it where finally, I had to talk her out of it.

If you look closely at the next photo, you can see Mary with her prize in her mouth.

And here's what all the ruckus was about.