The Adventures of Chip, Dale and Bob

When we first put-up the bird feeders, Hubby was filling them up daily. He said "the birds are eating us out of house and home." Just days later, I hear Hubby yell, "Come look at this little son-of-a-gun!" Hubby tapped on the window, and the squirrel scampered up the tree behind the detached garage.

Shortly after that another squirrel joined the first. And then there were two, and then three. The third one was different. When I first saw the third squirrel, and saw that he did not have a tail, just a stub. The bob-tail squirrel probably got his tail bit off by a coyote, lucky to be alive.

My husband was playing with the squirrels, at the same time, trying to; figure-out a way, to keep them out of the birdfeeder. For the next few months they kept getting into the birdfeeder, and had broken it many times, and every time we saw one of them, Hubby or I, would run outside with the little alarm, that when the pin is pulled sets off a piercing sound, and the squirrels would run behind the detached garage and up the tree. Some weeks, and pounds of bird seed later, the squirrel that was on the birdfeeder that day, stopped running, and just sat and looked at us, and only ran when, I got within a foot of him.

So Hubby rigged up a boom, out of two cans, with weights on each one, tied with strong string, so that we could drop them on him, as he was eating. Guess what? I think the squirrel is psychic! I watched as Hubby tried to lower the boom on the “son of a gun”, while he was feasting on the bird seed, Hubby opened the front door, the squirrel looked at me, in the window when he heard the beep of the door being opened, it was as if, he knew what was about to happen, he jumped down, and the boom missed him. When I told Hubby what happened, he said “you talk like; you think the thing can reason.”

Within half an hour, squirrely was back, I watched as Hubby lowered the boom and this time it hit squirrely, squarely on the rump. Squirrely jumped down, onto the ground and one of the cans fell off the string and onto the ground beside him. He turned around and went up to the can to inspect it. I guess when he did not find it a threat; he decided to eat the seed on the ground.

The next morning he was back, and I was wishing I had studied how to do the short films on my digital camera. This time, it was my turn to lower the boom. Hubby was watching as I went out and unwound the string, to lower the boom. And "boom"! I made a direct hit with the one can that was left, and thought he ran away.

When I came back inside, Hubby was laughing, because Squirrely was back, and upon the T-Post that the bird feeders hang from, and he was inspecting the boom, cans, and weight that had fallen on him. Squirrely, was like a puppy, slowly sneak up to the can, sniffing it, and then jump back, then cautiously walk up sniff, and then jump back again.

This is hysterical!! We both loved watching the squirrel's antics. But it was getting expensive to feed bird seed to the squirrels. I have to learn how, to make mini movies with my digital camera. I told Hubby.

I had begun to tell my cousin about them, and that is when I gave them the names Chip, and Dale, because I love the chipmunks, and Bob, because he has a bob-tail.

The raids on the birdfeeders went on for weeks, as we kept trying, to out-fox the squirrels. I would look out, and there was Chip or Dale. I would tap on the window, but after the episode with the boom, they were no longer afraid of us, and would just keep on eating, like we were not there.

I looked out, one day and saw Chip or Dale (funny! I don't think I ever saw both, on the birdfeeder at the same time) raiding the birdfeeder. I tapped on the window, and the squirrel, just looked at me, and kept on eating. I went outside through the garage, so he/she would not hear the beep, of the door being opened. I peeked around the corner of the house, and he/she was too busy eating, to notice. I took careful aim, and gently squeezed the trigger, hitting the greedy little thief, square in the rump.

I am sure it must have burned; the hose had been lying in the blazing sun, because, the pistol grip of the sprayer handle was hot, and the squirrel jumped at least, 5 feet higher, than the birdfeeder. I thought we had seen the last of them, but they were back the very next day, but only one on the birdfeeder.

One day when I was outside, doing some yard work. I heard Bob screaming, I looked up and saw Bob on his first, and, last flight, and I don't think he was screaming because he was not flying first class. I can just see, poor Bob, as the hatch opens (hawk claws), and he, the bob-tail squirrel falls on the ground, unconscious/dead, as his luck ran out. I wonder, if the fall does not kill Bob, will the hawk eat him alive?

My husband, a retired carpenter, decided to make, the other two squirrels, their own feeder in hopes, they would leave the bird seed alone.

First he made a squirrel out of wood, attached to a perch, attached to the Burr Oak tree, outside the kitchen window, about ten feet from the birdfeeder. And every day, he would put pecans on the perch for the squirrels, and they would take the pecans, and bury them, and then go and eat the bird seed.

Hubby thought if he cracked the pecans, maybe they would eat them...so, he cracked some pecans, and the squirrels ate them, but still ate the bird seed also. You win squirrely, you win. But Hubby does not give up easily.

Just for fun, and to see what the squirrels would do, Hubby drilled a hole through a pecan, and put a wire through it and fastened the other end to the wooden squirrel. And, we watched, as Chip or Dale got the pecan off the wire. Now I have to learn how to make a video clip.

After I studied my camera's manual, and was all set I asked Hubby to put another pecan on a wire. And I waited the next morning for what seemed like an hour. And, I made the video clip of the squirrel getting the pecan off the wire, but that still did not stop the daily raids on the birdfeeders. (Now I have to learn how to put the clip on Hub pages.)

Hubby, who is adept at sheet metal work, solved the problem. Hubby cut circles out of sheet metal and fashioned skirts out of them, for the birdfeeder posts.

The following day we anxiously awaited Chip and Dale's arrival. We were not disappointed, as we watched them chase each other around and around the Burr Oak tree. Then one of them ran up the birdfeeder pole, under the skirt, and slid down onto his bushy tail, and did a back-flip. The other one got on top of the evergreen shaped into a ball, sat up on hind legs to look longingly at the bird seed, but could not get to them.

You won, Honey Bunny, you won!