Chippy vs. Home Decor

Something caught my eye this morning while sipping my first cup of coffee. There was a scattering and a scuffling on the porch, then all was still. In a few more minutes, it started all over again. Scattering. Scuffling. From a small corner of the window I caught a glimpse of this furry brown little guy scurrying about...

He kept returning to our porch. Up the stairs. Scattering. Scuffling. Down the stairs. So we all hunkered by the window to investigate just what he found so fascinating. And then I solved the mystery that kept me in suspense over the past few days.

On my porch I have a sweet little light post decoration which is complete with faux strawberry plants. It's rather cute, if I don't say so myself. Which I just did. Say so myself, that is.

Over the past few days I have picked up bunches of the fake flowers and berries that have been strewn about my porch. I blamed the children. They denied any incriminating behavior. I blamed the chickens, whom have recently discovered the joy of residing on our porch. (They like watching us through the window. I'm fairly confident they'd like to be indoor chickens...but I've drawn that line in the sand.) I blamed the wind. However, I still wondered how the wind could pick them up from out of the box and scatter them here and there. It was a mystery. And nobody here would fess up.

Apparently Chippy likes my porch decor, too. We watched him for a bit and found that he was rummaging through them, stealing the fake berries and running them up to a hole in the big maple tree nearby. I salvaged what was left and brought it inside to stay.

Chippy's gonna be awfully disappointed one cold day this winter when he decides to take a big munch into those strawberries. Or perhaps he was just decorating his winter cottage for his bride. Either way, he's gonna have to find his own home decor elsewhere.