Post for: #squirrel ^{(2 Posts)}

Barley, a dog, surveils the activities of a band of squirrels through the curtains. Barley is uninterested in squirrels generally, and I find her lack of interest especially surprising when they’re very close by, just outside the patio door. You might think this is because the curtain provides a kind of visual buffer, but she’s not any more interest if the blinds are drawn. However, today was an exception, possibly because the squirrels were really giving one another trouble over what I can only imagine is a squirrel turf dispute. As the motion blur on her tail implies, she was not only attentive to these squabbles, but wanted to make sure I was aware of them as well.

Barley, a dog, takes a break from scrutinizing the squirrels gathered on just the other side of the curtains and glances back at the camera. The bird feeder I have hanging above my patio recently saw a big uptick in use, perhaps because more birds using it means more birds seeing that more birds are using it, and so forth. Being picky eaters, the birds in question (sparrows, I think) have been rummaging around and knocking their less-preferred seeds to the ground, which has in turn attracted more squirrels. Barley finds these visitors mildly interesting, watching them silently from the floor or the futon. For their part, the squirrels don’t seem to notice her supervision.