harvestman: In 2002, having lost all my fruit, I undertook to protect my harvests from squirrels. I read everything I could find on the web about squirrels and eventually stumbled upon this forum and John Fasoldt's squirrel board. I read these two avidly - and still do. I started with a BB gun because I'm in an urban area and didn't even know about trapping. Moderate success. Then I purchased two traps and found they worked just as GW posters and John said they would. It took a year to get the population down. But ever since I keep all my crops. I'll take a rough guess of 600 squirrels in 7 years. During those 7 years I experienced, read and learned quite a bit about squirrels and their habits, their curiosities, their vulnerabilities and their cleverness. I'll take a rough guess at 150 posts about squirrels on GW Fruit & Orchard since 2005 and maybe another 150 posts on John's board. And I'll add another 100 websites such as other gardening forums, universities, wikis and the like. It is from this body of knowledge that I spoke. Your comments caused me to think that my first hand experience is limited to the Eastern Fox squirrel and is further limited to my area, let's say, L.A. County. However, I found that what John and his posters said about the Gray squirrels in the east (he's a professional exterminator in New Jersey) applied to the Fox squirrels here. So I began to think in terms of common behaviors of several species of squirrel. In seven years, I have not found that the squirrels have "gotten wise" to much of anything in my area. The sole exception is that if they are caught in a live trap and released, they are then "trap shy" and are difficult to trap again. So I suppose our experiences differ in this regard. Maybe some of that Ivy League has rubbed off on your Gray squirrels in the east. But here in the west, or I should say, my backyard, I found that 600 squirrels behaved in generally the same way. That way was just as John and his posters described in the east. I make no statements nor claims about any pests other than squirrels. Indeed, I still have great trouble with possums in my backyard. From your posts it seems to me you have much broader experience than I have with regard to many different kinds of pests in many different locations. My post was aimed at the relative newcomer experiencing loss of harvest due to squirrels. It was not so much directed at experienced people like yourself or jellyman or scottsmith. I have empathy for the newcomer who spends much time, money and hardwork only to find squirrels taking it all. These newbies face an internet loaded with all manner of gimmicks for squirrel control: flashing lights, high frequency audio, olfactory repellants, fake owls and so on. I've read so many posts of disappointments in the failure of these devices. I've also read many posts about successes. These two aggregates of many people's experiences combined with my own experience led me to attempt to save newbies from loss of time, money, work and harvests by cautioning them to stay away from all these things. I did not intend to caution them away from techniques advocated by professionals such as yourself. I thought, tell them to stick with the simple - the tried and true. None of this is intended to deny your successes with other techniques. You professionals are in a different class than newcomers. For example, there is a growing number of urban newcomers whose interest in growing food has been sparked into life starting, say, five years ago. They, like me, are backyard growers who have been "trained" to cut newly planted bareroot trees off at 36" in order to develop low scaffolds. So in our case, the tanglefoot technique doesn't apply. But this does not deny the validity, as you mentioned, of using tanglefoot on trees with 48" before the first scaffold. I did paint with very broad brush strokes. But I did so with the newbie in mind. I probably should have qualified my comments in this way. Despite some differing experiences, I think you and I are united in trying to help people grow their own food and keep it from the critters. I've been a bit rambling here, but it is my attempt to answer your question regarding why I am confident to speak about squirrel control. Tony

Y'all are so nice to me, and you have been so nice to me for so long. I am deeply grateful. I really appreciated hearing that you have had similar experiences with loved pets and loved people. I would really love to hear more. Please write to me at jimchaney@cableone.net One of my wonderful nieces had the same suggestion of getting a new kitty, and when I arrived back at the house a few days ago, my niece, who has a doorkey, told me to close the front door quickly. I asked why, and she pointed to a doorway, where I saw this little black streak running through the den and then the connecting living room. My niece had called the "pound" in five counties to find a cat that looked like Abigail. She went 50 miles to get my kitty, who is black with white on her throat and part of her belly. I named her Esmerelda and call her "Izzy." Izzy is a nine week old darling ball of black fluff who sleeps on my chest when I am in bed, except when I turn over onto my tummy and then she sleeps on my butt. And purrs. Funny sensation, the sense of whirring in your butt. The last two days I've been studying for an exam-12 hours a day, and Iz sleeps on my tummy except when that cute black furry face looks over the top of my book at me or gnaws on the edge of the book. Iz is what the term "beautiful cat" is all about. I've been at the computer for about an hour and in that time she has managed to turn over the trash can, run through the house many times, has snuggled up to my feet, looked up many time with an "Isn't it time to play?" look, and is driving her 7 year old thirteen pound stepbrother Tupelo to distraction. Tupelo jumps up on the desk to get away from her and then sits on the scanner. He's now licking his left front paw while he stands up. Tupelo is very patient and usually gives me 5 minutes before he throws the papers off the scanner so he can lie down. Cats are hilarious. Please let me hear from you. Jim

Any folks in the San Antonio area looking for p. caerulea "Constance Elliott" can find a whole heck of a lot of 'em at Milberger's Nursery on the 1604 loop, north side. They had well over a dozen 5'-6' plants in five gallon containers for $24.99. Looked very healthy in full sun, so ought to be hardened off and ready to put in the ground. Only a couple were actively blooming, but many had buds and several were growing fruit. There were a couple other varieties there as well (Blue Sky, iirc, and LOTS of p. vitifolia in 1 gallon containers for $12.99) but Constance Elliott was by far the dominant passiflora. There were only two CE's in 1 gallon containers, and I ended up buying one. So if you want one, that's where to go. As an addendum to this story, I planted my Constance Elliott in our front flower bed yesterday late in the evening. I have a huge Incense growing on one side of the bed, and I wanted something to balance as well as contrast with it (Gulf Fritliary cats have absolutely *devastated* the Incense in recent weeks). I went home for lunch today, and after seeing a butterfly land on the CE as I was driving up, I figured I'd better check on it, so that it's not eaten before it can get established. Friends and neighbors, I picked EIGHTEEN eggs off that little plant! I'll wager I pick an equal number off this evening as well. I love those butterflies as much as the next person, but it was well into August before they stripped my Incense last year. What is it with them this year?

I'm so sorry to hear about Jigo. I just lost my cat suddenly on Sunday. Like you, I have other pets - 2 other cats and 2 dogs. But, my cat Raku, was probably my favorite even though I love them all. I still have his sister Bindi and honestly, my bond with her has grown so much in the past few days. They had been with each other since before I adopted them (about 10 years) and she spent most of her time in search of him (now in search of me). I hope the same will happen for you and Basti. Just remember that Basti needs a lot of TLC right now too. For me spending time with Bindi knowing that we are both going through missing him has given me so much comfort. Another note, when I have had animals pass in the past, I write a journal. The pages about what happened surrounding their death doesn't matter, it is just a release. But, the parts you write about stories of them and all their little quirks, you may cherish forever. I know I do. When Raku passed, I opened my pet journal. Morpheus, another cat, died a year and half ago. I started reading her stories and quirks and it was so comforting. I thought I would die when she passed. However, with time I am able to read the stories and about her and they make me smile so much. Bringing back such great memories. Some things you will never forget, but in the short time since I lost her, I had forgotten some stories, but vividly remembered them after reading my journal. Just something helpful for me that you may want to keep in mind. Finally, I don't know if you question the groomer/vet and what happened as another poster mentioned it. I questioned my vet A LOT after it happened - why wasn't more done, why wasn't the mass treated, was it heart failure, on, and on, and on. Was almost driving myself crazy until I said enough is enough and went to my vet with all my questions. We talked for 20-30 minutes. I felt so much better. If you do have questions, my only suggestion is maybe try to ask the vet who witnessed it first. They probably will sit down and talk to you as it likely shocked them too and they may also have answers for you if you still have questions.