Damned Squirrels!

On my way back from my adjunct teaching gig last Thursday afternoon, I came to a stop sign and suddenly smelled the really strong odor of gasoline.  Oh, please, let he driver who had just passed through the intersection have overfilled his tank.  But, of, course, such was not the case; the almost perceptibly falling needle on the fuel gauge confirmed that I was leaking gas.

I stopped for a quick errand, looked under the car, and saw the gasoline fairly spewing onto the pavement.  Fortunately, when I turned off the car, the stream stopped and I could complete my errand.  But the streaming renewed as soon as I restarted the car.

Fearing that even if I got back home I wouldn't be able to get the car started again, I pulled into my mechanic's garage and reported the problem.  I left the car, and my mechanic drove me home.

My suspicions were confirmed the next morning when my mechanic called to tell me that a squirrel had chewed through the fuel line--again!  This has to be at least the second time in this car, and at least once in Kali's car.  The damage this time: $165.

Almost every time I come out of my house, squirrels scatter from the undercarriage of the car.  I can understand their seeking shelter, but what would possess them to nibble on a fuel line, for goodness sake?

A Scourge or a Close Scrape?

Because I feed the birds, I have a surfeit of Gray Squirrels in my yard.  Sometimes, there are half a dozen under my feeder, picking through the seed that drops from the platform above when the birds are being especially picky; Blue Jays bring a feast, with their careless, powerful flings.

The squirrels can be a costly headache, too.  They have crawled up in the undercarriage of my car and chewed gasoline lines and electrical wires on more than one occasion.  Can such things actually be tasty?

I used to have fewer squirrels when feral cats patrolled the property, but the arrival of Eastern Coyotes about three years ago decimated the feral cat population.  It's very rare to see a cat any longer.  In response, the squirrel population has skyrocketed.

A few days ago, I noticed the squirrel in the (unsatisfactorily blurry) image above, under the feeder.  I could see that the fur was missing from the squirrel's tail, and I attributed it to an infestation of mange.  But last evening, when I went out to get a picture, I saw that the tail was in really bad shape and, even worse, the side of the squirrel away from the camera was horribly disfigured and partially hairless.  It also looked like the animal had lost its eye on that side.  Now, I'm questioning my mange diagnosis and wondering if the squirrel got in some kind of fight or escaped from a predator.

Many of the coyotes I see in the neighborhood are afflicted with mange; it's a horrible disease, but I think that it comes from too many animals sharing too small a habitat.  It's a natural (but terrible) population regulator.  In contrast, I've seen quite a few Red Foxes lately, but their coats are beautiful, sleek, and bushy.  I've seen my share of mangy foxes in the past, so it's possible that they could suffer in the future, too.

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'Off to suburban northeast Ohio this weekend for six days.