Cute, cuter, cutest

There is an episode of The Simpsons, the one where Lisa becomes a vegetarian, in which the family visit a petting zoo and see a series of three ever-cuter sheep.  As they ooh at the cutest of the three one of the other two wanders back into view and Homer shoos it away.

I've been feeling a bit like Homer recently with the wildlife out the back window.  All winter I've been happily watching squirrels, like this happy fellow.

Cute, no?  When I first arrived here the squirrels just frolicked on the hills.  Now, thanks to a liberal application of nuts to the back deck they visit several times a day for a free feed.  They've even been known to knock on glass door and beg for more.


Now all the snow has melted, and spring is stirring, I've been getting excited about the chipmunk which has been stirring along with it.  Here's a picture I took while it had lunch with me today.

OMG, how cute is that?  They make the squirrels look like lumbering giants.  They've even got go-faster stripes down each side (they must work, too, because they can move like the wind).

Never mind that on its first appearance this season the cute ickle wickle chipmunk had a dead baby mouse in its mouth, while the squirrels stick almost exclusively to plants.  Squirrels set off the cute fuzzy animal detector in my brain, but chipmunks set it off more, and I'm feeling a bit bad about that.

Mind you, I'd shoo a hundred little chipmunks away to get a closer look at one of these things.

That's a groundhog, also known as a marmot, woodchuck and Wikipedia knows what else.  In fact, looking at the Wikipedia page I'm dismayed at all the photos from people who have clearly gotten a lot closer to one with a camera than I have.  My picture, snapped last summer, might as well be of Nessie it's so grainy.

Anyway, groundhogs are about, as evidenced by the dead one I saw at the side of the road a couple of weeks ago, so it's only a matter of time.  And what then?  Like an extreme sports addict I need more and more elusive and exotic animals to feed my habit.  Maybe I'll be looking for beavers, or hellbenders.  There's plenty to choose from.

"But what," ask the poor squirrels, "about us?"

"You'd better keep up with the nuts, or we'll chew through the precious cable TV cable!"

They make a compelling argument.