Squirrel!

I’m not saying that the 4 birds, 3 bunnies, 2 squirrels, and 1 mama duck I met in the backyard is why I purchased this house… but I have to admit that it’s part of the charm.  It might make gardening a challenge, but there are ways to mitigate that. I’m happy to have this balance of being in a convenient location while still getting my critter fix.  Nothing will compare to living in a cabin tucked into a forest (several life chapters ago), but this is pretty nice.

It looks like we have little statues on our fence posts, staring at us:

squirrel eating a nut

Mama squirrel

Squirrel reaching for a pecan.

The squirrels are very interested in humans, but this mama squirrel will get very close, even taking a pecan from a hand.

Cat looking up at squirrel on a screen door.

Juan stayed with us for part of the holiday season. He was entertained by the “Kitty TV” – windows where he could watch birds and squirrels.

Sophie Powder Puff

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Image of Sophie falling asleep on a pillowcase. Sometimes they will claim something still warm from the dryer before I have a chance to fold it and put it away (which means it will be a ferret bed for awhile and return directly to the wash).

Brown ferret curled into a ball to sleep on a pillowcase.

Prairie Dogs

In the video below, if you listen carefully (with volume up), you can hear Kevin start to do a “voice over” for the prairie dogs. He does this often with the ferrets, and in response, they get very excited and run up to him to play. “He’s doing the voice!” he will say in his “ferret” voice. He even modifies it slightly for each one.

We have joked about how he should just do this as a YouTube channel for fun.

“Do you want to play?”

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Took a break from unpacking to play with ferrets. Sophie immediately started dooking when I asked, “Do you want to play?” Sophie wants to play with humans. Lily wants to play with Sophie. Notice how Lily tried to engage in play several times before she finally got Sophie to play with her.

Sound on to hear the dooking.