Contrarian Creatures

We do enjoy the small
wildlife that make
their homes in and around
our gardens. The sublime songs
of the cardinals, robins,
song sparrows and goldfinches
in summer; the swift passage of
rabbits, chipmunks and
squirrels, searching out
winter forage. In that
season we drop peanuts and
crumbs at our side stoop
then parse the tiny
impressions left in
new-fallen snow. We so
often wonder where they all
nest. Some, surely, under
the raised floor of our garden shed?

Our long-time neighbours
a quietly mousy elderly couple
(like ourselves, sans description),
latterly enquired had we seen
fewer of the squirrels
about lately? For, the frail
birdlike woman said proudly,
her husband has taken to trapping
them, smile on her face as ours
surely fell in disbelief.

What say!?!
Yes, quite a few,
she expanded, have now
been re-located elsewhere,
due to her industrious
husband's ministrations
...where they may
no longer irritate with
their pestiferous presence.