Some may remember that I was curious what trouble would come when a momma squirrel moved into the tree in my yard last Summer. There were a few negative responses but I decided not to run her off. She left on her own (but not unaccompanied) about a month ago. Now, the vestiges of her residence have become a little troublesome.

No, while she was here, she was little more than a source of entertainment. She never "got into anything" in my yard that I was aware of. She did draw my attention to the tiny alpine strawberries when they rippened in the lawn.

I planted them years ago, DW had absolutely no interest in them but the plants sent out runners and invaded a few square feet of the lawn. Turns out the plants are quite happy amongst the lawn grass and even mature a crop - Madam Squirrel enjoyed the berries.

During warm weather over the Winter, she would descend from the top of the tree and show up on our deck. There, we discovered she was shredding a vinyl tablecloth we had used to cover a gas cooker. She'd stuff her mouth with the cotton-backed vinyl and scurry back up the tree to her nest. I couldn't bring myself to put a stop to it. She was just trying to stay warm and she was a mother, after all.

She left on her own probably after all the walnuts she'd buried around the yard had been dug and the neighbor had given up putting black oil sunflower seed in his bird feeder. Yes, there were tiny holes here and there where she'd dug the walnuts and she did miss at least one - I've got a seedling starting to grow beside the driveway. But, she had her maternal responsibilities and it was time to move on.

It was comical to watch her - fortunately, she was not seen leaving by the neighborhood cats. We caught sight of her just as she was packing her baby off the fence under her tree and heading across the road.

Baby must have been at least one-half of her size. It would have been a good deal of work bringing Baby down from the nest because crossing the street was a process of hop, hop . . . put Baby down and rest . . . hop, hop . . . put Baby down . . .

She finally disappeared around the neighbor's house on the other side of the street, unnoticed by any predators. Once in the backyard there, she would have another row of trees to scurry about in and a lazy Labrador to keep the cats at bay. She's been back only once to visit and seemed quite perky to be frequenting her own haunts for an hour or so.

The trouble? Her nest is now falling slowly to pieces. Apparently, it takes continual squirrel maintenance to keep the thing together. One can imagine her clinging to it from the inside during the cold, Winter windstorms.

Now, there are bunches of dried grass, cellophane, squirrel hair and vinyl tablecloths raining down in the yard. A little more falls each day.

I wish she'd come back and put her house back in order.

digitS'