Hi all and thanks. We hope the next baby ~>insert species of your choice hereDaisy. Master Gardener. Puppy corrupter, I mean, role model, pond assistant, kitty head stuffer, mugger with A rubber chicken.... Yes, she manages to put a smile on our faces and perhaps a few bruises from the chicken assault. :-) We also discovered she is a Bird Nutritionist. No high cholesterol for our Downy Woodpeckers, the Pileated guys, the Yellow Hammers, the Nuthatches and everyone else. No way. No how! Daisy jumps up and brings down the suet feeders ... breaks into them and eats the suet! Then she has the bloody diarrhea from eating all that fat! Good girl, Daisy! Sacrificing yourself to protect the little feathered birdy visitors from eating that stuff. Good Girl! Now I need to climb up on a plastic milk crate to hang the suet feeders higher in the trees so Daisy can't pull them down. The other feeders needed to be raised higher too because she's pulled them down and she and Rani have destroyed many seed feeders. :-( Pets are relaxing. Pets are relaxing. Pets are relaxing. Pets are relaxing. Pets are relaxing. Pets are relaxing. Do I believe this yet? Pets are relaxing. Pets are relaxing.... She brought home a mouse this afternoon. We think he came from the compost pile area. He was wet but not harmed as he ran through the kitchen. He was caught, dried off, fed with grapes, apples and some seeds and water. Then he was put back in the compost pile with some seeds and apologies for being kidnapped. Pets are relaxing....

Between the squirrels and the birds, I can lose a lot of figs here in Virgina, even with cats hanging out around the tree. I often individually wrap figs with pieces of newspaper, and this definatly gives me more figs. It's time consuming, but I love my figs, so I do what I gotta do. I hear squirrel is tasty, but I'm not sure if I could kill and clean them.

CTC ~ I have to do that with the Halloween candy around here or my husband will eat it all!! At first I thought the squirrel was leaving me tokens of appreciation.......until I watched him carefully pile the cones in and protect his stash up and down the fence and even in the trees! He literally pounces on the birds and chases them through the trees! He lays along the top of the fence like he's on guard and only does this when I fill the dishes. It is quite a gong show to watch. Especially when the maggies and bluejays come down and start throwing the pinecones everywhere. Lol. :) My neighbour tells me that they fill the birdhouses on her deck with all that I feed them then they go in and harrass the sparrows when they build nests in the spring! Maybe try feeding them and they will leave your plants alone. In other words put some squirrel goodies beside the new plants. :)Just a thought..... Ginny

Hav-a-heart traps work very well for squirrels. I use a slice of apple with a little peanut butter smeared on for bait. Squirrels tend to multiply so quickly, I find it important to get them when I see them. Renais