Pumpkin-spice massacre

Halloween was last week, but when I came home yesterday I found a gruesome sight on my front steps.  It looked like the scene of horror film, with guts strewn everywhere and a pair of hollowed out corpses flanking the steps.

The victims of the massacre?  Pumpkins.

The perpetrators?  Squirrels.

Every year we put pumpkins on our porch as a fall decoration and every year the squirrels chew on them.  This year the squirrels have gotten much more industrious and have completely hollowed out two of the four pumpkins (so far).  The squirrels are not eating the flesh of the pumpkins at all - it is all about the seeds. 

I expect that when I get home tonight I will find that the other two pumpkins have also been hollowed out and all of the seeds nibbled upon.

Our squirrels are industrious and will take advantage of any food available to them.  I intend to plant several hundred tulip bulbs in our flower gardens this weekend and I expect the squirrels to take their toll on those as well.  

I just wish that they would have left the pumpkins alone until after Thanksgiving...