There are two squirrels preparing for winter in my backyard.  The unfortunate part of this is the fact that they are creating their food store in the attic of my garage.

A cat had one of the squirrels cornered and all I could hear was a lot of loud squawking at the back of the garage.  I rounded the corner just in time to see the squirrel jump from the

garage roof to an extension ladder that was leaning against the wall.  From the extension ladder it clung to the siding and clawed it's way to a hole that had been chewed out underneath the eave.

That was one very agile squirrel.  Who knew that they could cling to aluminum siding!  Seeing this made me cringe.  It meant that I have to crawl up into the garage attic and remove the food store again.  I had to do this a number of years ago.  That time, I filled and removed a large black garbage bag full of mushrooms, pine cones, flower heads and chewed pink insulation.  There was quite the nest created.  I'm sure it would have been very toasty up there.

Watching this guy maneuver his way along the wall reminded me of the visitor I had during a camping trip this summer.  I was enjoying a relaxing morning, preparing my fishing rod.  My hands were full with the rod in one hand and line in the other.  The squirrel was watching me from a nearby branch.

It knew exactly when I could not reach to shoo it away.  As I fumbled with the line, it scampered down the tree, across the picnic table, onto the bench and balanced on the edge of my bowl of cherries.  A sneaky little smile appeared on its face.  That squirrel knew it had me at a disadvantage.  It grabbed a cherry from the bowl and ran. 

The escape was comical.  Rather than taking only one cherry, there was a second stem attached so the squirrel had one in its mouth and the other was getting caught up in its feet as it ran.

I managed to get the lid on the bowl before it returned.  It tried and tried to get the lid open.  When it failed, it did a complete tour of all the items on the picnic table to see if there was more food.  It gave me the evil eye before leaving to raid another camp site.