[Closed] Rooftop Revolving Lounge Part II

One time a pair of squirrels stopped me from getting run over by a car that i didn't see coming.  Now i gladly feed them every day.  I don't even pretend that my bird feeders are for the actual birds.

@lenor Perhaps it was really the same one each time 😀 

@matildagirl That’s what he said too!

so cool to see that Joni Mitchell has joined Neil Young in removing her music from Spotify.  People have been listening to Joni and Neil for over 50 years now.  Will anyone, in say, the year 2072, still be listening to Joe Rogaine?  Here is Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi  because, "don't it always seem to go, don't know what you've got till it's gone"

  attn @stargazer

@unk-p 

Wow Unk-p. That is  great story!  Thanks for sharing it with us.

Today is Lunar New Year and Imbolg (the first day of spring in the Celtic calendar). So to everyone, here's to new beginnings!  🥂 

@coyote I never knew that about the Celtic calendar!  I love learning all things Celtic!

The snow & ice are melting and while I'm really happy about that, it's a mess out there. We went for a walk with our white dog Rooney, and now her whole underside and legs are brown. Then I saw this cartoon.

This is a squirrel update.  Remember we had a little squirrel appear in our living room during the storm? I think I told you that I surprised him while he was exploring the house because when I entered a room in the morning, I heard a loud clatter and then he whizzed past me at a speed faster than I have ever seen any creature move.

Anyway, the little guy had flown down the basement stairs and without breaking his run, whipped under the basement door.

The Internet told me he must have come in by accident because they mainly like to nest in attics. So I just needed to open a door to let him out.

But in my mind, I always kept seeing him entering the house through a basement wall.  I couldn't get that thought out of my head, but still I did all the things they said to do.

We left a door open for him so he could exit the house.  Then just in case he was still down there,  we also set a squirrel-size havahart trap for him.  I put a slab of peanut butter on a thick piece of orange peel the size of my palm, and placed it in the back of the trap, as directed. I tested the trap and there was no way any animal could get to that bait without tripping the trap door. I was very pleased that I had all bases covered.

For the next three days I checked the trap often, but no Mr. Squirrel. But then, upon closer examination, I realized that the bait was gone! Orange peel and all. 

Furthermore, we found the orange peel in another part of the basement, sticking out of a crack in the wall about two feet from the floor. I guess the orange peel was too big to fit in the tunnel. 

So that is probably the last of squirrel. Two points for squirrel. Two point for my third eye. 0 points for my confidence in my third eye. 0 points for Internet squirrel experts. 

My Squirrel Update:  A snowstorm sprung the trap but we think there may have only been two in the house because even that trap was out there for several days with nothing.  I'm hopeful we got them all and I'll have to go around the house in the spring and see if I can determine where they got in and fill it with spray foam.

An Animals in the Basement Story:  We're coming up on the four year (maybe five year) anniversary of an April snow storm in which a kitten materialized out of nowhere in our basement.  She had obviously been abused before finding her way into a (now sealed) hole in our foundation but she absolutely loves the girls and my wife.  Me...not quite as much.  But - we called her Unexpected Basement Kitty at the vet for the first two visits because we weren't certain we were going to keep her and part of the final call was going to be whether or not she had any health issues that could spread to our other cat Newton.  Living in a farmhouse as old as ours, you kind of have to have cats to catch the mice, and Newton (who was a year old at the time) had just lost his elderly companion.  We finally settled on the name "Bailey" for the new girl cat, but when she does something naughty now we say "Unexpected Basement Kitty, don't make us put you back down there!" and she looks at us with "okay, okay, okay, fine."  She is the BEST mouser.  I'm glad she chose us, even though we didn't really have a say.  

When we first worked to tame her, she'd basically be a possum while being held.  She'd lay there and take anything you wanted to give her.  Put her down next to you and she'd "pretend" to cuddle but actually slowly backed away and would then run and hide.  The game became "Where's U.B.K. now?" she'll cuddle almost all of us now but as soon as a new person is in the house she hides and won't come out until they're gone.

Here's her at the vet that first fateful day.  Fun fact, she really only got marginally bigger - she's still almost kitten sized as a full grown adult.  Also pictured, twin the youngest.