Stanley

 My husband and I have a friend at our house. Her name is Stanley. Yes, HER name. And she is a squirrel.

Stanley made herself known not long after we moved into our house. There is a nice concrete patio just off the kitchen with a 1960's style metal awning.  The awning had been damaged by the limb of the oak tree that also stood just off the kitchen.  We had the oak tree taken down because that is all you could see from the kitchen door, it was massive and rotten.  Since we had just moved in we were still accessing what things around this forty year old house needed to be updated, fixed etc. so we had not yet addressed the damage the awning had since it was on the small side. 

But small or not, our friend, Stanley, knew about it. At this point, the squirrel got called a he, hence the name Stanley. I don't try to figure out the gender of squirrels because they are so fleeting.  But for weeks we had seen a squirrel take up residence in our front yard and found out he was quite the voyeur.  Several times I was sitting on the couch in front of the large front room window and suddenly feel eyes on my back. I would turn around and a squirrel would be sitting on the brick window ledge staring in through the glass.  It didn't matter if I jumped in surprise or yelled, he just sat there, staring. 

We would also find him sitting on the front sidewalk next to the front door. Just sitting and watching the street.  He would not move unless  we opened the front door and disturbed his revelry.

But one day our daughter was visiting and was sitting on the patio outside the kitchen door when she kept hearing a rustling and scratching sound.  The next thing I knew I saw her taking the broom  handle and pounding the underside of the awning with it.  Even though she was an adult, I felt the need to remind her not to tear apart her parents' home so I opened the door.  "What in the world are you doing?"

"There is something up there!" she replied poking the roof some more.

"What do you mean, something up there?"

"It's making a rustling noise and scraping noise."  she replied.

"Maybe it's a snake," I teased at which she promptly dropped the broom and ran inside the house.

But later, when I was in the kitchen, I looked out and saw a squirrel jump off the awning roof onto the barbeque grill and to the ground.  Then a few minutes later I saw it come back and jump up to the grill and to the roof.   Hmm.. this needs investigating. So what did I do, I alerted my husband.

The next day he looked at the awning and noticed a dent with a very small opening.  "Just large enough for a potential squirrel to be hiding food," he told me. Oh dear, that is not a good thing. It is right over the kitchen door and who knows what will be falling out of the awning roof then.  So he and my daughter got out the ladder, and some tools to pry open the awning and see what they could see.  As soon as he climbed up the ladder and banged around on the metal, he heard scurrying. 

I came out the door and decided I had better add to the backup. So with my daughter and me standing behind him while he was on the ladder, he lifted up the awning roof and all hell broke loose!

Four baby squirrels went running everywhere in all directions!!! Lucky for my husband none of them jumped directly on him but it was good my daughter and I were standing behind him because of course he jumped and we kept him from falling off the ladder!

Oh my gosh, there were four little babies running like mice all over the awning top. One raced down to the far end and came over the edge. It held onto the awning with one paw. My daughter and I shrieked and looked to find a bucket to catch him in. But suddenly he jumped onto the house brick and made it to safety.  Another one ran down the other side towards a shed at the end of the patio and jumped to safety to the ground.  The other two went running along the roof line an onto the brick. 

  We all felt a mixture of laughter, regret at disturbing babies in the nest and relief that none of us or any of the squirrels were injured.  We kept an eye out for them for several days following and to our relief, mom had rounded them up and they were up in a neighbor's tree feasting on nuts.

But Stanley has continued to hang out in our yard, stealing bird seed and tearing up the decor and bird houses I keep. I guess she is still a little perturbed with us for destroying her perfect hiding spot. She was back this fall again, stealing the black walnuts I had put out to dry.  She even went so far as to eat them on the front stoop and leave the crumbs behind, stinker.

Oh well, life with nature. I sit in my rocker knitting and watch the antics outside enjoying the show.