Remains of the (Squirrel) Day

Our happy little neighborhood is quickly becoming wild kingdom. We've dealt with a bunch of squirrels with no problems, even when they sit on the deck and taunt our dog Oliver and scurry away before he can get to them. Raccoons have recently made their way to our area and have setup base camps in our neighbor's tree as well as a tree a few house down the block. And two weeks ago the neighborhood "celebrated" the birth of a new litter of baby foxes from the fox family that has resided in the area for years.

This has created a nightly menagerie of animal sounds that is driving Oliver insane, and subsequently means he spends all night pacing around the house defending our land while keeping us from getting more than 15 minutes of uninterrupted sleep.

Sunday morning brought us a new gift of the season. Oliver went outside and came up on the deck with a dead squirrel in his mouth. Fabulous. Scared the wife at an early hour and she was completely unprepared. Luckily it was clear he hadn't killed it himself (most likely I'm guessing Momma Fox was getting food for the cubs), but that didn't stop him from enjoying whatever morsels were left over. Again, fabulous. We thought we had solved the problem and removed everything up until a few hours later when Oliver threw up some remains (including a squirrel foot) onto the comforter in the guest bedroom. Thanks, pal, and happy Sunday!

I'm not enjoying the wild kingdom phase of our neighborhood. Then again, it's probably better than some of my DC friends who have homeless guys crapping in the alley outside their apartments. So life is at least interesting for everyone.