LPF week 19 writeoff

[hwango]

The bird feeder is on fire again.

We used to have a serious problem with squirrels stealing food out of the feeder and scaring off the birds. We tried hanging it in a bunch of different places, and then tried attaching weird things to make it hard for the squirrels to climb it or hang on to it, but apparently the neighborhood squirrels are ninja acrobats or something. Eventually, we decided to try one of those ultra-high frequency devices.

They chewed through the wires.

The only thing left we could think of was to fill the feeder with food the squirrels won't want. It means we're attracting rather different birds than we'd originally hoped for, but we were out of ideas. And it's not all bad.

Phoenixes do have lovely plumage.

Comments

[murielle]

I love it! Always wondered what Dumbledore had to deal with when his Phoenix burned itself up over and over, new perch? New cage? Now I know. Thank you so much for answering this burning question. Well done!

[hwango]

Thanks! I live to spread knowledge and enlightenment. = )

[halfshellvenus]

Hahahaha! Nice!

And as always, I did not see that twist coming.

I was expecting the fire to be the result of vengeance against the squirrels when all other methods had failed. :O

It cost us some 5K to get those little monsters out of the space between the floors of our house. Rodents! Still a plague, even in this modern age...

[hwango]

Thanks! Yikes, that sounds like quite the infestation. I'm picturing them behind tiny barricades with parapets made of acorns.

[rayaso]

I love what you do, including this! We recently paid a lot of money to have Rodent Man come seal our house and remove some unwanted guests, because our walls had become some kind of rodent and squirrel resort. He found 5 places of entry. A little later we heard the sounds of something in our walls again. Rodent Man found a new entry point that I cannot believe a squirrel could reach to chew through. A long story, but you took a similar problem and came up with a phoenix. We only wound up with a declining balance in our check book. I'd rather have the bird. You are such a talented writer!

[hwango]

Thank you, that's very kind of you to say. I had so little time I could spend on this, and so many ideas that I had were either going to take longer than I had, or felt like retreading territory I'd already gone into this season. I wish I'd had time to write something longer, but I'll have to hope that this is enough!

And I'm sorry to hear about your plague of squirrels! Its amazing how good wildlife is at demolishing the trappings of civilization. In a contest between pretty much any substance and the local raccoons, I'd bet on the raccoons.

[rayaso]

Never bet against a raccoon, especially when food is on the line.

[furzicle]

Furzicle here: cute story!

[hwango]

Thank you! I wish we'd had more time for our entries. It never occurred to me to budget any time on Friday for emergency story writing. = P

[favoritebean]

I loved this.

[hwango]

I'm pleased to hear it!

[flipflop_diva]

Ha! This is great! I definitely did not expect this to be why the bird feeder was on fire — though knowing your normal twists and turns, I wouldn't have been surprised it if it was because of an arsonist squirrel!

[hwango]

Thanks! Yeah, you never know with squirrels. I can totally imagine them seeking fiery vengeance if the feeder was no longer accessible or had distasteful food. = )