The squirrels always watch me carefully when I reach for the sandals just inside the door: this means business. They’ll tense, turn halfway so as to run but not taking their eyes off me, frozen and ready to explode in motion.
Because if I’m putting those sandals on it means I’m serious. I’m coming into their territory.
I put some suet out for the ground birds today and needed to run an errand and just really didn’t want it all to go to the bushytails while the towhees and wrens and juncos and golden-crowned sparrows got nothing . Hmm.
And so, for the first time, I tried putting those sandals outside to stand guard, remembering the chant of childhood: stinky feet smell my feet give me something good to eat.
Or not.
None of the squirrels would even come back to the patio, and an hour later the suet was untouched. Somehow even the bluejay stayed away, and it’s been pretty aggressive lately (I assume while feeding nestlings).
Huh. Well, that worked!
I’ll have to keep it a novelty, though.