...and in her yard she had some Squirrels, e i e i o

Archie the dog is a terrier.

Part beagle and part Jacket Russell.

He did not inherit the better parts of either of these breeds.

He is a garbage hound and he loves to run away and kill rodents and small animals.

He is the Alpha dog, pushy and rude.

He doesn't look like he would be like this but don't you remember your mother telling you that looks could be deceiving?

Last summer a squirrel moved into our yard.  We think it is a red squirrel.

It stole all the hazelnuts from our tree - it even fought off the stellar jays to get them.

It picked hundreds of plums from our plum tree

and stored all of these goodies in our neighbor Troy's garden shed loft.

Troy, when he realized what was going on, nailed up boards so the squirrel couldn't get inside to get its winter stash.

We saw the squirrel all winter long,  foraging for food and quite happily annoying Archie the Dog and Troy the Neighbor.

He would scurry along the top of the fence chattering at Troy or run on the deck and peer through our patio door - pissing off Archie the Dog who would yelp and shake and frantically run around the house until he was let out to have a chance at the kill.

The squirrel was just too fast and too cunning for Archie to catch him.

The husband had enough of the neighbor Troy and the dog Archie and so brought home a live trap last weekend and set it up. 

We were sure he would bag Archie before he got the squirrel but two days later there was our cute little red squirrel, inside the trap,  looking more than a bit annoyed at his situation.
The Husband and Son #2 drove the squirrel up to the bottom of the mountain and the edge of the  forest (where there would be lots of pine cone seeds to eat) and opened the door to release him.

He wouldn't go out.

They tipped the trap and shook him out.

He turned around and jumped back in!

They shook him out again  and the squirrel just stood there.

We thought  that maybe he was a city squirrel, who loved to live where food was abundant.

We could tell he was not looking forward to living his life in the woods.

And, we thought that maybe he had family members still at our house. (insert sad face here)

Or maybe he just liked to annoy Archie who was still racing around the yard trying to find the evil squirrel who's scent was so overwhelming.


Yesterday The Husband trapped Squirrel #2 (we think it was #2).

The Husband thought that he should spray a little paint on the squirrels tail - just to be sure it wasn't a Homing Squirrel - who liked life at our house a lot!