Health & Fitness
Backyard Theatre - Better Than Cable Any Day
Every critter in the 'hood knows I'll feed them and water them.
I’m a sucker for animals, and they all know it. Every critter in the ‘hood knows I’ll feed them and water them. I kind of think that if they’re well fed they won’t eat important and inappropriate stuff—like the siding. (Note: bugs, snakes, and worms are NOT animals. I won’t kill them, but we’ll never be best buds.)
So our yard is overrun with an assortment of birds, squirrels, chipmunks and the resident opossum, Pogo. I have feeders and birdbaths that I keep full year round, and in return the critters keep me entertained. We each think we’ve got the best end of the bargain.
The chippies play racecar—dashing all over the yard with tails held high. If you squint you can make out the tiny numbers and sponsor names on their sides. Birds congregate and take turns eating and bathing. And they really do take turns—there’s almost a queue in the surrounding trees. We have a rogue’s gallery of bird ID’s taped inside the kitchen cabinets because we’re always wonder what type of bird that one is.
Find out what's happening in Tuckerwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
The squirrels run the place. For years our now departed TJ, a monster of a cat, would get dope slapped by the squirrels--literally. He’d be out there stalking the feeders and one of the squirrels would hop down, run over to him and slap him. (I have witnesses!) It got so bad that the poor cat would detour around the yard rather than go within fifteen feet of the feeder. Now we’ve got some squirrels that will hop up on the window ledge to torment our indoor kitty. We have a cat flap that is operated via a magnet on the cat collar so they squirrels can’t get in, but I have actually seen them push on the flap, giving it the ol’ college try.
Once, when I had the screen door open for some reason, one of the little buggers strolled into the den for a look-see. He casually glanced about the room and
decided he didn’t like the color, I guess, because then he slowly sashayed back
out, ignoring me completely. OK—maybe not sashayed. More like waddled.
Find out what's happening in Tuckerwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
One year we had a family of owls—Mom and two fledglings—who kindly put in a close-up and prolonged appearance on the one night our birding friend from
out west was dining with us. He was so enchanted he gifted us his copy of Audubon’s right then and there. Two years ago when we had that nasty extended cold snap I went to put suet in the feeders and had birds eating from it before I’d even replaced it on the wire. I felt like an extra in a Hitchcock movie!
Now the critters have gotten bolder. If I haven’t filled the feeders they take
turns staring through the windows at me, sucking in their guts and trying to
look skinny. Yes, it always works. Which reminds me, I’m late for the afternoon
feeding…