There’s a New Rodent in Town

I am informed by my house sitter that the squirrels are on a destructive rampage back home. Amazing what removing the threat of instant death does to the audacity of rodents. So far, one light bulb has been broken and an adorable birdhouse that the girls next door made for us lies shattered in several pieces on the deck, no doubt the work of newly audacious squirrels. But I will eventually return and when I do, justice will be swift and unyielding. Meanwhile the happy news here at the lake is that I have not seen a single squirrel (gray or red) anywhere on the property since we arrived 15 days ago. It has been glorious.

That is not to say that our lives here are rodent-free. At this property, the king is this guy:

The Maine chipmunk rules the roost around here. They are everywhere. And while they are cuter than their destructive cousins, at least squirrels don’t spend all day singing. That’s right, you heard me…this guy, several times a day stops dead in his tiny tracks and starts this obnoxiously loud chirping, for no apparent reason. It’s amazing what a tremendous amount of noise can come out of something so small. The worst part is…it goes on forever. As I write this, one particular guy has been at it for the last four minutes straight without coming up for air…just a constant stream of chirp, chirp chirp…

Unlike the squirrels in my backyard who live in constant fear of my hulking presence, these guys just laugh when they see us. They won’t even stop eating if we happen to walk by while one of them is gnawing on something. They act like we don’t even exist. In that way they are similar to the loons, totally unimpressed with our presence here. Its like a loon will slip up from the depths within twenty feet of our dock and look at us and be like, “Oh…I see you guys are back. How was your winter? Looks like you’ve gained weight…”