Continue to Gnaw at the Empty Feeder?

February 14, 2007
I have the cutest little squirrel sitting on my bird feeder which hangs in the middle of my Southern windows. He's having a feast since I just filled it yesterday. This is a little guy who just does not give up. For several days now, he's been trying to figure out how to get to that feeder. He's tried jumping from every tree on the South side. A few times he hit the feeder and got it really swinging but fell off. Then he figured out how to jump over to a little ledge on the side of the building and tried jumping from there onto the feeder. Still it gets the feeder swinging so much that it throws him off. I almost went out there in this bitter cold blowing snow to make sure he didn’t break his neck from the number of times he tried to jump onto the bird feeder and didn’t make it.
Then, around noon, he figured out that he can jump over to the little ledge, jump up onto the arm holding the feeder away from the wall, climb up the arm and slide down the side of the feeder to sit on the post where the birds usually sit. He is sitting there looking at me very innocently just having a jolly good time and quite a feast. That is quite a cute picture!
The squirrel has returned to the feeder a number of times this afternoon now and has finished the seeds off entirely. It appears that after all that I may have to run him off because now that he’s eaten all the seeds he’s starting to chew on the feeder.
This is the 14th time this afternoon that I must open the window on this cold blowing snowy day to shoo the little guy away because he just continues to gnaw at the feeder now. I'm afraid that when I return tomorrow the feeder will be in little pieces on the ground and no birds (or squirrels) will be able to have any seeds.
– It's interesting how the story of a day in the life of a squirrel can so closely resemble the story of our life. How to make sure you're nurturing, nourishing, supporting, not enabling bad behavior as a giver and kindly receiving, appreciative, not wearing out our welcome when we're receiving. How, as givers, do we know or decide when to stop giving? And how can we stop giving gracefully? How can we recognize those that will start to eat the plastic when the birdfood runs out? And can we stop them before they eat the plastic or before they totally bust up our birdfeeder?