It hasn’t been the best of weeks when it comes to squirrels around these parts, as I’ve had to dispose of a couple of dead ones this week (not good when you’ve just come in from work.) I buried both of them in deep holes in the garden, then on top of the refilled soil, put a garnish of black pepper and some minced garlic (out of a pepper mill and a garlic crusher, of course!) to keep those damn cats away who we summise were the killers.

South London squirrels are usually the kings of the garden here, dodging and weaving away from cats and foxes, knackering them out into the process but it’s not so at the present moment.

This week I got in touch with the website www.squirrels.info who told me this time of year is when the mother kicks her young out to fend for themselves hence the amount of confused or sadly, dead ones around autumn time.

The website provides very good info on what to do if you find an orphan squirrel here. I could have done with that link last Sunday as I witnessed a cat versus squirrel stand off here after a nice afternoon in the pub.

More details of what happened is on Sounds From The South 9 – Too Much Too Young from The Dirt last night. Tune of the week is Dr Alimantado with Still Alive and the podcast is now up online here. It’s on after the animal sounds quiz at 5 minutes in.

There’s lots of great stuff on the show including Amie Sagar interviewing Squirrels about the situation at the moment, The Idiot Gardener on Sainsbury’s Bank’s “Crafty Gardening Ideas” tome (here) and The Gentleman Gardener talking topical among lots of other madness.

Thanks very much to Lindsey at www.squirrels.info for the advice.

Here’s another small mammal seen this week in Central London, a ferret on a lead. Is that legal?