Customers!

When we moved to Maryland almost a year ago, Evelyn wanted to feed squirrels. I bought some plain, unsalted peanuts, tossed a few onto the deck, and we waited. And waited . . . and waited. The only reason those peanuts finally disappeared was because we got tired of looking at them and threw them away.

This morning I noticed a lot of squirrel activity in the back yard. Since I still had those peanuts from January, I thought I'd put some on the deck to see if we could get any takers. I tried this in the morning, while Evelyn was at preschool, to see if any critters would come before getting Evelyn excited about it. This time the squirrels found our peanuts - they were gone in less than ten minutes.

While Evelyn ate her post-preschool snack at the kitchen table this afternoon, every now and then she would shout, "Customers!" That's her way of saying squirrels were eating our peanuts. Evelyn was just as captivated with the squirrels on our deck as she is watching TV - that's saying something!

As a side note, I know at least one of these squirrels isn't new to the game of begging from humans. Shortly after the peanut supply ran out, it was tapping at our sliding glass door with its paws.