Cute critters

I spent a big chunk of this morning scrubbing our deck and otherwise cleaning up after the squirrels, chipmunks and various birds that like the casual al fresco dining experience we provide.  It wasn't too bad but it's a shame they won't use the facilities.

Anyway, I got to thinking about the cuteness of my woodland friends (I say friends, but I've no doubt they'd turn on me in a moment if the nut supply dried up...) and I think I've worked out a way to measure their cuteness based on how much food you are willing to let them steal.

Take the chipmunks, for example.  One of these, which we started calling Hoover, was particularly fond of nicking seed from the bird feeder.  I even mixed in some cayenne pepper with the seed, which is supposed to deter mammals while going unnoticed by the birds.  This kept another chipmunk away, but not Hoover who apparently had a taste for the hot stuff.  I say "had" because I now think it was he, and not the little chipmunk, that was eaten by a cat a few weeks ago.  No chipmunks have been stealing seed since then.

Anyway, my point is that Hoover made of with bags and bags of sunflower seeds - chipmunks hoard tremendous amounts of food in their underground larders, something like half a bushel which is about twenty litres - and I really didn't mind.  Yes, he was being a rascal, but he was just do darned cute I couldn't really get angry at him (and I certainly didn't want him disappeared by a cat).  So judging by how much food I was willing to tolerate him stealing, Hoover's cuteness would have had the needle tapping at the end of the scale.

At the other end of the scale we have, for example, the ants that were plaguing us for a while.  They didn't actually make off with any food as far as I know, but that was still too much for us to tolerate.  Not cute at all.

And in between we find everything else.  The blue jays have been getting on our nerves because they've started hovering all the time to eat the peanuts we put out for the squirrels.  They may look good but they're not as cute as my squirelly pals.  And the bunnies are lovely to have out on the lawn - but woe betide any rabbit that eats any of my plants.

It's not a very scientific measure but it works in most cases.  I'm not sure if it still works when one cute critter eats another one - I'm not feeling any love for that chipmunk-chewing cat right now, but that's because a tiny fuzzy life has been snuffed out, not because I'm thinking of all that seed going to waste (no, really).  So it still needs some work.  I guess I'll just have to study these cute little animals some more.