{"id":667,"date":"2020-04-04T08:00:57","date_gmt":"2020-04-04T13:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/?p=667"},"modified":"2020-04-03T16:00:28","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:00:28","slug":"lizzie-watching-a-squirrel-eat-peanuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/2020\/04\/04\/lizzie-watching-a-squirrel-eat-peanuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Lizzie Watching a Squirrel Eat Peanuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lizzie, being a typical dog, likes to chase squirrels. While I let her chase them because she enjoys it so much, I put Lizzie at the disadvantage by warning<\/em> the squirrels, usually by making extra noise when I open the door. I enjoy watching her chase the squirrels but I don’t want her to actually catch them. Truth be told, I like squirrels, particularly the Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)<\/a>. I enjoy watching them and they are, for the most part, harmless.<\/p>\n

This winter I noticed a dearth of gray squirrels in our yard. We normally have 3-4 gray squirrels and an occasional American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)<\/a>. I have seen<\/a> Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)<\/a> come through our yard so I suspect they have reduced the squirrel population. The situation became so bad that entire weeks would go by without me seeing any squirrels in our yard. Deciding that I had to do something to help the squirrels (and keep Lizzie entertained), I began placing food out for them. I put the food in locations that they could easily access without putting them in undue danger of predators.<\/p>\n

\"Lizzie<\/a>
Lizzie is watching a grey squirrel eat peanuts on a Tiki statue we have in our backyard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, Lizzie and I looked out a window to see a gray squirrel eating peanuts on a Tiki statue in our backyard. Despite her penchant for chasing them, she quietly watched it eat. Perhaps she too understood that she can’t chase squirrels if there are no squirrels to chase and, therefore, let it have a meal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lizzie, being a typical dog, likes to chase squirrels. While I let her chase them because she enjoys it so much, I put Lizzie at the disadvantage by warning the squirrels, usually by making extra noise when I open the door. I enjoy watching her chase the squirrels but I don’t want her to actually … Continue reading “Lizzie Watching a Squirrel Eat Peanuts”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,5],"tags":[43,15,16,29],"class_list":["post-667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pets","category-wildlife","tag-american-red-squirrel","tag-eastern-gray-squirrel","tag-lizzie","tag-red-fox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":688,"href":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions\/688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mcgerik.com\/homestead\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}