Gun / Squirt / pistol / Color: purple and orange / Mdl # 1845WP-389 / made in China. I was having my morning coffee while sitting at the front door, watching nature and thinking of nothing in particular. Then it came: The much dreaded grey squirrel, invading the bird feeder just 10 feet from me. I yelled and yet the squirrel still hung from the feeder by it's two front clawed feet. I then went into the kitchen and filled up the handy purple and orange squirt gun and went to the front door and ........shot it! Undaunted by the water (maybe because it was raining at the time) I stuck my arm out the door and took aim, and again shot it but this time with a full blast to it's pointy little head. Success!! The squirrel went back to roosting in the cedar tree. Feeling pretty proud of myself, I went over the scenario in my brain as if it was a youtube video that played over and over again. Then it hit me!! In my mind's eye I could see the large overloaded yellowish school bus that had passed by just as I nailed the marauding grey beast of a squirrel. OH, WHAT HAVE I DONE? !! I, an example of one who should know better, have brandished and used my gun (within the city limits no less) and used it to commit a premeditated act of water violence by method of a squirt gun which might lead to the delinquency of our youth! You know how this could go? If even one saw me from the school bus then first, they might want a squirt gun, then a bigger squirt gun, a blaster, a blaster canon, and finally a super duper blaster cannon with a super soaker attachment!!! Kids all over the world will be soaking wet from the onslaught of H2O. It might even lead to CLIMATE CHANGE!! Whoa is me. What kind of person does this to children and yes, squirrels? Perhaps I should turn myself in to the FBI or go on FB and admit my wrongs to all of the countries of the world! Hmmmm.......time for another cup of coffee. Now, what can I entertain myself with next? Uh, how's your morning? Seen any squirrels?
Lol, you guys are BAD! You are lucky to be posting that on this forum ....I know of a forum where people walk on eggshells.
Since my house used to be an apartment building, we have a second-floor fire escape. I put a bird feeder in the balcony of the fire escape, mostly as a sort of a Cat TV, to give my cats something to look at, because my older ones don't care to go outdoors much anymore and I didn't want the younger one to go out until she became used to the place. Of course, the gray squirrels came, but I'm having more fun with the gray squirrels than I did with the birds, and I still get birds anyhow. The squirrels and the blue jays have a long-lasting feud, as one is always trying to drive the other away from the food. Everyone scatters when the pigeons come. Now, apart from the bird food that I buy, I also make sure to have unsalted peanuts or squirrel food. Now that we're in the Christmas season, the stores have nuts that are still in the shells, and even unroasted chestnuts, so I have been buying them. Soon, they are supposed to be on half price, at which time I'll buy a bunch of them. Luckily, this is the same time that the squirrels are squirreling food away for the winter. An interesting fact about the eastern gray squirrels, as opposed to the red squirrel, is that the gray squirrels store food in the winter using a method called scatter hoarding, meaning that they bury or stash it away in several places, and don't actively defend their winter stores from theft. I have watched the gray squirrels take nuts from my balcony, burying them in piles of leaves, and they've dug little holes all over my yard to bury nuts, as well as in my garden, including my lingonberry garden that runs along my driveway, and which will be buried in several feet of packed snow throughout the winter. In the wild, nuts and seeds that are stored by eastern gray squirrels often sprout in the spring, spreading the forest trees, as they don't have a clear map as to where they have stashed their food away, and are unable to find all of it when they need it. Red squirrels, on the other hand, concentrate their winter cache in one location, and they generally eat it where they have it stored. This location will be near where their nests are, and they will defend their cache from thieves. Where I live, in central Maine, we're on the northern portion of the range for the eastern gray squirrel, but that's the only kind of squirrel that I have seen around here. Up north, where our land is, I see red squirrels. So, my bird feeder has become more of a squirrel feeder, and I surrender and embrace that. I draw the line on raccoons, though. Although I will admit to having a fondness for raccoons, I simply cannot afford to feed them. Plus, they have an annoying habit of dumping over whatever they don't eat. I have a live trap in which to relocate the raccoons who come around to steal from the bird/squirrel feeder. If they want to go through the compost, fine; that simply accelerates the compost process.
@Chrissy Page, our non-eggshell forum attitude is a big reason many of us are here. We all need to be a little siily, and as you say, BAD, sometimes. Enjoyment amongst friends that we trust not to threaten or jump on us for a misplaced word is what I call my online home. @Ken Anderson . reading your post has given me the idea to make a squirrel station too. My two large pit bulls are now living at my step-daughter's house, so they're not here to chase and kill them now. It might even give my eight pound Izzy some fun just trying to catch one. He's been asking me for a kitty, but I don't know if that is such a good idea.
I'm allergic to eggshells. Now that I let my younger cat go outdoors sometimes during the day, she has come to refer to the feeding station as a baiting station. I'm not sure why,
Uh, yeah @Chrissy Page, what Ina said but I might recommend putting the egg shells in your garden, coffee makings, or in a nice demi glace instead of walking on them. Just having a little fun with ya Chrissy! To be a little more serious,(but not too much) when it comes to forums, if I feel I have to tip-toe around I probably will just sign out....and sometimes permanently. This one seems to afford the opportunity for everyone to interact as we choose to without the encumbrances of constantly watching what we say for fear of not being PC. Gentlepeople do that. Let's face it, there are some serious topics and on the other side of the spectrum there are some that make no sense at all but are still fun. It's all on how we take some things and how ambitious we are to find the fun in others or the faults. Now, what I was thinking about writing about until I shot that squirrel with my trusty squirt gun was the time I ran over a skunk in N. Idaho with my Toyota pick-em-up truck. Boy, what a mess that was and stinnnnnnnnnnkkkkk! Uh, maybe later on that one. I have one credo that I live by: When I plays I plays hard, when I works I works hard, and when I thinks, ....sometimes I falls asleep.
It isn't necessarily the dead skunk in the middle of the road that I fear any longer. It's when one of the dogs takes out after a live one and comes back somewhat less than a "house dog" any longer. In our house, we do keep a plethora of tomato products in the pantry. Not that we expect to have to give the dogs a bath in the stuff, but it's good to have around.