Man, Scarface the squirrel is a bully. He’s a male, and when he’s eating sunflower seeds from the platform feeder, NOBODY ELSE is allowed on the deck. Another squirrel tentatively came up the stairs, peered over, and Scarface was immediately making a loud, almost mechanical sounding buzzing-scolding noise, tail lashing wildly. When the squirrel slunk a little closer, Scarface charged him, chasing the hapless intruder off, and then stomped back to the seeds and continued stuffing his face.

Haven’t seen Stumpy in ages. Gimpy’s around occasionally, saw Notch yesterday, although the distinctive notch is beginning to close up, making the ear look crimped. Lumpy is probably around, but alas, I’ve finally lost track of her–once their winter coats fell out, the distinctive under-arm cowlicks left over from the botfly lump seems to have grown out. It got fainter and fainter, and now I can only speculate on who was Lumpy.

But botfly season is presumably not far off, and soon a new race of Lumpies will be upon us! Lumpy II, Lumpy Jr, Lumpy Redux…

In non-mammalian news, Scruffy, the un-tufted titmouse, is still around, and still scruffy–his head feathers aren’t growing back at all, but it doesn’t seem to slow him down much. The rat is still around as well–I see him under the neighbor’s feeder now and again, and one of the squirrels scolded him off t’other day. He seems unwilling to tangle with them, which is probably best for everyone involved.