I don't have this on good authority, but I've been told (by someone who should know better if it's not true) that a preponderance of squirrels in your neighborhood means fewer rats. Squirrels and rats apparently being the sharks and jets of the animal kingdom.
If it's true, then I'm pinning my hopes on this guy being the vanguard of a benign invasion of sciurus carolinensis. Because in the several years I've lived here the rats have seemed to dominate. And these fuckers aren't shy like the downtown rats I'd grown accustomed to, who wait until 1 or 2 in the morning to venture out. No, these guys gather and frolic in groups, boisterous and undaunted, on the sidewalks and in the gutters as early as sundown.
But this year, going all the way back to the dead of winter, as I work away in my little perch here, it seems every morning and afternoon I catch a glimpse out of the corner of my eye of a little dark streak flying past this big wall of southern-facing windows. And then the fun begins. He leaps, monkey-like, branch-to-branch, tree-to-tree, feasting on the berry-sized fruit that grows there.
Of course, it might be more than one squirrel -- I haven't tagged his ear or anything. And, in fact, in recent weeks a couple of them at a time have shown up, battling it out in the trees, turning my windows into TV screens replaying a very tame episode of Wild Kingdom.
I know they can be major pests in some neighborhoods, nesting in attics and chewing through power lines, but here I consider them happy harbingers of better times.
And I have no idea whether the squirrel vs. rat theory is true. I always thought it had more to do with the degree of urbanization and concentration of big, old growth trees in your particular neighborhood. Nevertheless, it has been a while since I've seen a rat.
And now that I've written this, one is sure to show up in my kitchen tonight.
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