Squirrels

Bushy-tailed rats.

They were such a nuisance this spring, digging up every green thing that had the audacity to poke up out of the soil. So I set out some humane traps and relocated a few of them. Serves me right that their replacements are even more ill-mannered.

Last week I set some tea out to brew on my back porch. When I came home from work that evening, I found one of my flower pots all dug up and dirt scattered around the porch. And somehow the squirrel had managed to get the lid off the jar of tea and got potting soil in the tea.

The next morning, I noticed a couple of unripe tomatoes missing from my tomato plant. I found them half-eaten at various places on the back steps. At least they didn't get all the tomatoes... until later in the day. The next time I saw the plant, there wasn't a single tomato remaining.

Yesterday I decided to grill a couple of hot dogs for dinner. I opened the valve to the propane tank and hit the starter button. Nothing happened. I hit the button a few more times -- still nothing. There didn't seem to be any gas coming out of the burner... but it sure smelled like gas! I carefully inspected the valve, and that's when I saw that the rubber hose running from the regulator to the burner had been chewed through.