More Adventures in House-Sitting

The house in which we are staying at is faaaar out in the country. In the woods, as it were. But I love it. Deer feast in the back yard; wild turkey in the front. Living amidst nature pretty much rocks. The downside? Terribly slow internet that is not completely reliable. Hence the delayed silence on this blog...

The owners here have about a bazillion bird feeders hanging among the trees on the front yard. And when the turkeys aren't there eating fallen seeds, there are a whole enterage of bird species that visit. And squirrel. And other varmint, apparently. While watching the birds yesterday we saw what we thought was a squirrel trapped inside a bird feeder. When it finally freed itself, we were quite baffled as to what it was. Still are, in fact. I googled for about an hour last night and could not for the life of me find out just what this creature is.

I can tell you what it is not. It is not a pine marten. Not a squirrel, nor a chipmunk. Not a mouse, vole, shrew, gerbil, hamster or chinchilla. (Laugh if you will, but out of desperation we googled that last one, too.) Every time we search to find what it is, we come up empty handed. What I can tell you is that it's very tame (let us come within a foot without even batting an eye), has a white under belly, blackest of black eyes, a flat yet fluffy tail, and is very...I repeat; very chubby. He definitely has been at the bird seed buffet a time or two before.

Kaytlin's hopeful that we discovered a whole new rodent that the world never knew existed. I'm doubtful on that one. But if by chance we did...can we name it ourselves? I dunno...something like the "short-haired chubster". Sounds catchy, no?

Oh, and I absolutely adore this last picture...he totally posed for me. Whatever he is. Any suggestions?