The Tree Rats are missing...

I've mentioned before that Dolly has a squirrel fetish.

She can spend hours watching tree branches in the front window, waiting for the flash of a bushy tail, or the acrobatics of tree limbs which designate the potential sighting of her favorite obsession.

I just figured my schedule was goofy enough that I was missing Squirrel Television.

Then my neighbor to the north happened to be outside one day (she's an elderly woman who can really be on the alert, if you get my drift.)

As we visited and caught up on each other's lives over the winter, she mentioned that one of her friends had called, telling her that our neighbor across the street was trapping the squirrels.

"Oh, I hope he doesn't trap the little black one!" we both said, having become very fond of a pair of cute little black-furred beauties that have taken residence in the area.

She said, "If he's hungry, I'll find him something to eat! He doesn't need to be trapping our squirrels!" She indicated that the person who called her had made reference to this possibility. And, my neighbor had already placed a call to City Hall, asking if it was permissible to trap squirrels; the answer was, "no"...that any trapping within the city was illegal, with the exception of stray cats, and even those were to be trapped in humane traps provided by the city, with the city then making sure the stray gets to the shelter for rescue.

My neighbor and I had this conversation last weekend. And, now we've been watching for the tree rats. There aren't any. We haven't seen even one. And, even if we weren't looking, Dolly is. And, she's not seeing them, either.

We noticed a blue barrel on the side of the garage of the neighbor who is supposed to be doing this. The barrel hasn't been there but about three weeks. Of course, it's none of our business what the barrel is, or what it's used for.

But, we have to wonder. We feed the squirrels. As annoying as Dolly can be with her obsessive barking at them, we enjoy watching the little buggers. And it's Spring and the corn and peanut bins are not emptying as they would normally. And by "would normally" I mean they are not missing a single kernal or nut.

R is paranoid. He thinks the neighbor is annoyed at Dolly's barking so he decided if he can't poison the dogs, he'll do everything he can to keep them from barking. The thing is, during the day our dogs are crated, away from windows and cannot even see the trees the squirrels are in. And, we don't let her carry on for hours when we are home. But, his paranoia makes me paranoid in a strange sort of way. I certainly don't need to be worrying about our neighbor coming into the house when we're gone and getting rid of my critters, but now that thought is firmly in place.

Argh. I want my squirrels back.