Home Invader

Since January, I've been volunteering at a local senior citizens' home. Today I offered to host their monthly Ice Cream Social. During the hour that I was gone, Tony Peanut decided to just pop in and help himself.

When I returned home, I found him sitting on the window seat nibbling away as if he owned the place. Discarded shells were scattered in little piles around him on the bench and across the window sill.

Tony had managed to gnaw his way through the remaining window screen while I was gone. The moment he realized I was home, he dropped the peanut and made a half-hearted attempt to leave the same way he'd come in. Then he changed his mind and went right back to his peanut!

Judging from evidence left at the crime scene, Tony had already made numerous trips back and forth to the peanut bowl in the kitchen. One by one, he'd carried peanuts back to the living room to eat. Tony might be a home invader and a thief but at least he's a fastidious one. Both rooms were left surprisingly neat, other than the piles of peanut shells. Even the hole in the screen was neat--and only just big enough for him to squeeze through (you can see it in the second photo).

I opened the back door and out Tony went--that is, once he'd had his fill of peanuts! I quickly put back the missing screen so Tony wouldn't be able to climb into the window again. Five minutes later I looked up from my computer and--surprise!--there he was, sitting on the window bench watching me. He'd managed to reach the window anyway and climb inside again!

I opened the back door and shooed Tony out (he never got near the peanut bowl this time). Then I closed and locked both windows. For now, they'll stay closed until I figure out how to keep Tony from climbing in or until he simply loses interest in them.

Moral of this story? Never underestimate a squirrel's determination to get to that peanut bowl!