In league with each other?

When I got home from work, I headed out to the backyard.

Over the phone notifications of calls and texts from work, I heard a crow calling.

And what greeted me as I stepped out?

The larger crow sitting on the fence, looking at me.

Eyeing me … impatiently?

And next to the crow, sitting less than two feet away from him on the fence?

That rat bastard, peanut-thieving, rectal hair of the Devil, squirrel.

Staring straight at me, and without question doing so impatiently.

It almost felt like I’d interrupted them in the middle of some conspiratorial conference, where they hoped to come up with some plan to maximize the number of peanuts they extracted from me.

As I (and Doggo) got closer, the crow flew up to the power line, unhurriedly, and the squirrel sauntered (yes, sauntered!) down the fence top and into a low hanging branch.

Both waiting.

I left the crow’s peanuts in the open, and the smaller, sacrificial peanuts under the tree branch for the squirrel.

I do that in the hopes the squirrel won’t steal all the peanuts from the crows.

But now I wonder if I even need to…