B. Out door cats. Since they have shown up in the neighborhood the squirrel populations has really gone down.
I often worry about fluctuations in animal populations, especially with all the construction (for about a decade now) at penn. at the museum, when work on the new wing was begun (1999?), a stand of mature ginkgos was removed so that the foundation could be dug. suddenly there were all these squirrels trying to nest on our deep, bar-protected office windowsills. they were persistent, them squirrels: you'd arrive in the morning to find your whole window filled (I mean, completely filled, top to bottom) with branches and leaves. so you'd clear them out, maybe do some email, go to lunch-- and come back to find the window filled again. so then you'd clear the leaves, complain a while on some listservs, step out for coffee-- only to come back and find the window filled AGAIN. and again you'd clear the leaves, write a letter to your congressman, have some cocktails, go home. and then arrive the next morning and start the whole thing over again. it was nuts.
they were so cute, though, the squirrels. the way they'd poke their heads through the leaves and watch you working through the window. once there was this momma squirrel who was very bossy and protective about her babies, and whenever we'd clear her leaves out she'd stand on top of the air conditioner and just GLARE at us. what finally did the trick and made them leave was to spray the windowsill with bathroom toilet cleaner (the foamy kind) that we got from the janitor.
at home it's a different story. me and the squirrels take turns using the porch, and there's no glaring or spraying or letter-writing. on weekends the porch is my tea-drinking reading spot, but during the week it's their own private salon. we've never met, but somehow we've agreed to basically stay out of each other's way. I love seeing their little neat piles of nut shells on the top step, the occasional new york times, and once, what looked to be torn up lottery tickets. they're ok, them squirrels.
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