Squirrel Update

Got a nice note today from a friend --it's refreshing to hear from someone of a decent age who reads blogs -- who says when she moved to a senior residence she took along a couple of her bird feeders.  Aha!  At another place where I once inquired, I was told "No, because they attract rats." Come on -- I've had deer, squirrels, just once a mouse -- but never, in all these years, any rats.
       What's more, her place, like most of the other local "residences",  has a pond.  I suspect those have something to do with sewer codes rather than landscaping, but she can watch a heron from her windows.  It's enough to make one re-think the whole question of Moving Somewhere and Taking Things Easy.  Things are, to be honest, Getting a Bit Harder. 
        Meanwhile -- today I learned two more things about that little odd squirrel who gets into the feeders.  Wish I could show you but the encounter went too quickly to get a video.  One of the normal grey squirrels showed up, and I got a chance to compare them.  This new little guy is less than half as large -- maybe one-third the size of what I think of as regular squirrels.  And the second thing -- the little one turned around and lunged at that grey squirrel, which  scurried off at top speed.  All of this is so absorbing I've stopped resenting the lost peanuts and birdseed.  This one is, after all, just trying to make a living, and it doesn't eat all that much.
      That brown streak goes from the tail all the way up its back. It's maybe twice the size of a chipmunk -- but you wouldn't call it a chipmunk, right?