The giant old oak tree in our backyard, in addition to shedding leaves and acorns pretty much year round and coating everything with pollen during spring, also serves as a commune for squirrels, a.k.a. tree rats. These aren’t just any tree rats; these are mean tree rats. Organized tree rats. Vindictive tree rats. When I used to have to walk Koby around the backyard before the fence was built, they were constantly pelting us with acorns. Now they taunt Koby mercilessly and he’s made it his mission in life to catch them all. They screw with his head by letting him get juuuust close enough that he can almost can almost taste the fur in his mouth, then they’ll scurry up the tree and point and laugh and throw nuts.
When Stuart noticed some of them starting to chew into the soffitt on the house, he and the dog united and took up arms against the tree rat army. Stuart dusted off the old pellet gun and started patrolling the backyard with Koby trotting along beside him. Whenever I’d leave Koby alone in the backyard I’d always wonder if that was the day I’d come home to find a chewed up squirrel carcass on the back porch, and it was not a thought I was relishing. I didn’t really want my dog chewing on squirrels, so I was a little less than thrilled with Stuart’s plan to just “slow one down enough” so Koby could get his paws on one.
It finally happened:
Stuart sniped one out of a tree and Koby thought it was his lucky day – sometimes squirrels just fall out of the sky right in front of you. Stuart may have slowed it down but if you ask Koby, he ran it down and finished it off.
Luckily this all happened while I was at work, so by the time I got home the carcass was disposed of (and no, Koby did not chew it to shreds first) and the blood was cleaned off his paws. But I still didn’t want to be greeted by a squirrel-breath dog when I got home from work, and made sure he had a Dentabone before he could do any licking.
We’ve seen nary a squirrel in the backyard since that day and so I am wondering what exactly Stuart did with the carcass before burial – did he perhaps parade around the backyard with its head on a pike as a warning to the others?
Ya know squirrels is good eattins’. Bet he bbq’d it right up thar n shard it wit the dawg. Seriously though, that is too damn funny. Lyta is jealous. And Frank is salivating at the screen. She got a lizard a few days ago and managed to detail it before Jake rescued it and tossed it outside. Best not to share this with Jake, he doesn’t like animals dying. Loves steak, just doesn’t want to think about where it comes from.
By: Becca on July 17, 2009
at 1:46 pm
I’m the same way – usually I don’t like to see stuff like that either. But, I don’t eat squirrel. The picture is kind of sad, but they really are pests. Gosh durn varmints!
By: lovesbug on July 17, 2009
at 2:43 pm