My nemesis

Yes, this little guy, cute as he is (to someone like SquirrelQueen, anyway) loves to come up on my porch and snag the sunflower seeds I want the chickadees to eat, not him. The other bird food, such as nyjer thistle, doesn't interest him at all. But those sunflower seeds are another matter altogether.

Not to mention he brings his whole family. I have had as many as four of them up here, fighting with each other over the seeds. They have also dug up the bulbs in my flower pot for food. I don't want to hurt them, so even though I want to throw something at them now and then, I don't. Instead, I go out to the porch and clap my hands loudly and yell at them. I was out there trying to squirt them with my little water bottle a while ago.

Watching my struggle, my downstairs neighbor said, "Why don't you go buy yourself a Super Soaker?"

"What's that?"

"Oh, it's a kid's toy that squirts water jets and it might be a lot of fun. It would probably work a whole lot better than your water bottle."

So, I just got back from the store, where I perused all the different kinds of Super Soakers and ended up buying this one. It had a picture of a kid on the front of the box with a demented look on his face, just as he was getting ready to plaster another kid with water. Once I got it assembled and loaded, I had to figure out how to use it. Since there were no kids around to show me how, I finally figured it out myself. With a demented look of my own, I went out on the front porch and got Smart Guy to take a picture of me using the Super Soaker. I discovered it shoots quite far, but it's just one shot, then you have to cock it for another shot. Never mind, I can see that I will have fun with it, and the squirrels will probably see me coming and run for their lives! The truth is, I will only wet their backsides, but I suspect I'll have fun doing it.

:-)