Chuck...

Not having actual children yet, my husband and I have two cats that we obsessively spoil and basically treat like our kids. Howard and Ruby are good kitties whom we love dearly but I'll be the first to admit that we are sometimes a little nutty about them. Any serious pet lover would understand I suppose.

Anyway, they of course needed to have a Christmas present this year and what do you buy for the spoiled cats who have everything but a new bird feeder to go outside of the sliding glass door in our new kitchen. Now in Upstate NY, we lived in a veritable wonderland of wildlife. There were tons of birds, bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks, deer and of course the turkeys. This cornucopia of wildlife would empty a bird feeder in less than a day (always to the delight of Howard and Ruby).

Fast forward to today. Living in Wisconsin now, we figured the wildlife situation would be similar. We figured wrong, however. The neighbors keep telling us that there are deer but despite seeing tracks in our yard we've yet to see one. I swear I've not seen a single bird, bunny, or chipmunk near our house since we moved in (not the mention the lack of turkeys). It's like we've moved to some strange parallel world...it's called the sub-burbs.

That, however, brings me to Chuck, our one and only squirrel, who miraculously appeared earlier this week. He seemingly has no friends or family or at least is not about to lead them to his pot of gold in our backyard. To the delight of Howie and Ruby, he comes each morning and gorges himself on birdseed, sitting on the steps just inches from their noses, whiskers, teeth, claws, and salivating mouths. He is either blissfully unaware of their presence or happily tormenting them with his twitching tail, bulging belly, and tiny little arms. Either way, the kitchen is now the hip kitty place to be!