Squirrels

We were having our roof repaired a few weeks ago; on the sloping roof was one the roofers scampering with a squirrel's agility. The strange thing was that when he came down he turned out to "have a thing" about squirrels. When I spoke to him about scuffling noises in the attic and the possibility of mice there, he came up close and whispered in my ear: "it's not mice,squire, it's squirrels. See that ivy," he said. "They climb up that and get into your attic."
When I told him I had never seen a squirrel in the neighbourhood, he sloped away; I thought he looked rather hurt.
He was probably one of those people (and there seem to be many about these days) who have such a revulsion of grey squirrels that they suspect them of being practically everywhere.
I met a bloke some years ago who had written a novel about a war between red and grey squirrels; he had at first published it himself but later found a publisher - it proved to be quite successful. Needless to say the "heroes" were the reds and the villains were the greys. I don't know which ones were triumphant in the end but it was probably the reds.
Not like real life at all.