Today was a nice, sunny day which made it harder than usual to concentrate.
I got a picture of a new visitor to the backyard this afternoon. I don’t know if he is here because I keep taking the healthy and strong competition out of the neighborhood, but this sorry little guy has taken up residence in some pretty choice territory.
He doesn’t have a bushy tail. Alopecia seems to have set in back there. He also has a bum right rear leg. As a result of these two conditions, he scoots along the top of the fence with a very low profile. He uses the gimpy leg to hook himself to the metal post as he leans toward the feeder to get a bite.
I was going to trap him like the others, but I can’t really bear it. He doesn’t eat the suet since he can’t reach it, and he is sort of a pathetic underdog.
I’ve even tried to catch him in the trap, but since he doesn’t sit on his haunches like other squirrels, he has been able to trigger the trap without latching it. If the trap doesn’t latch, he just slips out the way he came in.
Maybe I should call him lucky.