Critters

Three in one day- can you believe it?

I have a history with critters.

I once caught a bothersome opossum but then felt pity on it and couldn't deal the death blow. My wife and sister like to laugh at me over that one.

We were caretakers of a historic house for about a year, before we had kids. There were some very annoying birds called grackles that really liked the trees at the house. They liked to "sing" to us at about 6 am and again at dusk. Imagine this, only there were 1,000,000 birds making this sound 100 times louder (each). And it didn't stop. Ever.

I tried to make big noises by slapping 2x4's together to scare the away. They scoffed at me. We got a tape of owls. They're not supposed to like owls. They joined in a melodious chorus with our hooting friend. I told them we had a cat that would eat them. (I think they knew I was lying.)

I got desperate. Enter my childhood BB gun. Notice the second floor balcony? It was a great place to shoot from since the trees offered cover from the police and they couldn't see that I was illegal shooting a firearm within the city limits. (At least that made it sound like more of an adventure. I doubt that it's really illegal to shoot a pump BB gun. But, just in case, don't tell your policeman friends.)

I'd hit one from time to time and that would scare them for a bit. Apparently, they have short memories because they would be back within 12 hours. Regina has a nice picture of me in my bathrobe on the balcony shooting at the little suckers.

In our current house, we have bird feeders. We like birds. We like squirrels, too. Squirrels like bird food. Actually, the squirrels hog the bird food. Stingy guys. I have pretty much given up on trying to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeder. I saw this article and thought there might be hope. While I got a really good laugh, I still have squirrels and it only reminded me of my grackle adventure.

Seriously, read the story now. I promise you'll laugh.

By the way, I have actually purchased red fox urine to try to get rid of raccoons, but that's another post. And I may need to get Steve, the former youth minister at my church, to guest post his story about red fox urine and squirrels, though it may not translate to the written word well. If you know him, and see him, ask him about it.