nuts_to_you_too raze i solved the mystery of the missing water_dish. two days after it vanished, i caught a black squirrel i hadn't seen before emptying its replacement. when all the water was gone, he got his arms around the bowl and eased the lip of it into his mouth. he was about to run off with it when i opened the door. "hey!" i said. "what the hell do you think you're doing?" he looked at me, dropped it, and ran off. i secured the dish to its resting place with duct tape. that didn't deter him for long. he rocked it back and forth until he'd spilled enough water to lighten the load. then he used his head as a battering ram and pried it loose. he abandoned it in the grass. guilt, maybe. i talked to him while he sulked on the fence. "what's your deal, man?" i said. "you already have one of these at home. what do you need two for? to keep your nut stash organized?" i didn't want to lose another glass dish. i found a plastic container that was about the same size and put that out there instead. it used to have slices of pepperoni in it. this time i used a few strips of gorilla tape on the bottom to really make it stick. my little kleptomaniac friend started taking bites out of it. i guess he figured if he couldn't take it with him in one shot, he'd steal it in increments. he did that for a few days. then he cut it out. he's become a regular. we call him jaws. these days he drinks from the dish instead of trying to take it apart. there's a little white spot above his nose. he always looks at me like he's plotting something. he's decided to let me keep what's mine. for now. 220907 what's it to you? who go blather from