The Saga of Rocky Continues

Here's Rocky looking for bird seed on the ground while he ignores the corn I put out (at great personal expense I might add) for him.

Saturday Larry and I headed off to Bucheit's the farm store here in Sparta. My intention was to buy a sling shot in an attempt to deter Rocky from getting into my bird feeder. It would have been the first weapon I had ever considering buying.

Something about what I was about to do wasn't sitting right with me. I knew if I bought a sling shot it wouldn't be long before I was on to the hard stuff. Could a b b gun or pistol be far behind? Soon I would be a card carrying member of the NRA  like Charlton Heston, daring people to remove an assault rifle from my cold dead hands. The thought of turning into a Republican was too much for me. "Maybe we should consider buying Rocky some food of his own," I suggested to Larry. Larry, who is way too nice to ever throw a lawn tool at a squirrel, agreed of course.

We found a bag of dried ears of corn and decided to treat Rocky to those. I returned home, filled the bird feeder and threw a couple of ears of corn on the ground for Rocky.

But you know children never eat what you put in front of them. Rocky is evidently a modern squirrel whose mother never told him the way mothers of  kids my generation did, "You're not getting anything else unless you eat what's put in front of you."

A while later Rocky was hanging upside down from a limb eating from the bird feeder. At least I didn't throw my lawn tools at him this time. I very humanely threw an ear of corn at him instead. The little ingrate didn't get the hint that the corn I was using as a projectile was his dinner. (This squirrel could never outsmart Boris and Natasha)

That evening when Larry was getting ready to leave he excitedly told me, "Oh, Gary Rocky is out here eating the corn!" But my triumph was short lived. When we turned on the porch light we found a rabbit sitting there! So now I have rabbits eating the squirrel food and a squirrel eating bird food. At least the birds get whatever bird seed spills onto the ground while Rocky feeds.

I've stopped filling the bird feeder again. If Rocky is going to eat the bird feed he can work for whatever I scatter on the ground by picking through the grass for it. I'm glad I didn't bother to rake my leaves last fall. Rocky deserves the challenge of having to rustle through them to find his dinner.