A Tale of Two Critters
I'm fairly certain now that the critter frolicking in secret at my homestead is actually two separate critters.

The first critter is the hole-digging critter. I am almost sure this is a squirrel on a nut hunting mission, determined to dig up my entire yard and all of my flower beds to locate nuts buried long ago. Every evening when I get home from work I take a tour of my yard to check the hole status. Sure enough, I find new holes, about the size and depth of a large nut.

My mom suggested I retaliate with chili powder. So I bought an industrial size container of chili powder, and everywhere I find a hole, I fill it with chili powder. I also sprinkle some around the hole. I fully expect to be awaken one night during the wee hours of the morning by the blood-curtling howl of a wild beast who has just experienced a mouthful of chili powder.

However, this particular critter/squirrel seems to enjoy the zesty flavor of chili powder on the nuts for which he is searching. The chili powder experiment has not deterred his hole-digging efforts in the least. It must be one of those Texas/South of the Border/Cajun critters who enjoys spicy foods.

The other critter is the poo depositing critter. I don't believe it is a squirrel, since the piles of poo are about the size of a small squirrel. I've found three piles of poo. In my backyard. All in the same general area on one side of the house. I have yet to find a hole where a critter could enter through the wood fence surrounding my fortress of a yard. So I can only hope the critter is nothing more than a cat, able to scale the fence in search of my yard as a bathroom. And hopefully just a domestic cat at that.

Now, I find it very rude for whatever poo-depositing critter this may be to be so bold as to deposit poo in my backyard. If I had a dog, of course I would understand that poo comes with that whole dog owning thing, and I would proceed to pick up after the dog. However, picking up poo from an animal that I've never seen before and is not a welcome guest on my land highly offends me.

So, this is the tale of my two critters. One, a chili powder loving hole digger. The other, a poo-depositing night prowler.

To be continued.

C.T.