Squirrels Run Wild at the O'Neill park

Loki, my friend’s dog and I, took a long walk up to the picturesque Eugene O'Neill property today, located high above the town of Danville. Once a thriving ranch with a stunning view of the entire San Ramon Valley, O'Neill raised chickens and wrote some his famous plays here.

The National Park Services now offer tours of the O'Neill's property, including the Tao house, and some of the grounds. Loki and I ventured up the path to see the burial site of "Blemie," the O'Neill's beloved Dalmation.

Loki, with his long doggy tongue hanging in his goofy way, made sure to mark every bush he could and looked with interest at the cattle that mooed at us from the fence. He did not seem to care that Mr. O'Neill penned Blemie's Last Will and Testament, but he did note the squirrel hanging out near the smelly cow pasture and an old bathtub ... maybe used to water the cows, now a thriving meeting place for the squirrel metropolis.

There are tours of the house itself, but Loki, not invited, being a dog and all, was not interested in the inside of the house. He preferred to scope out the abundance of rodents that seemed to dot the hillside like ants ... they were everywhere you looked, some even brazen enough to dart right across Loki's path.

Standing up and surveying the villages, no cities, they have created far and wide, the little brown creatures scurry about their rodent way. Things to do, burrows to dig ... on the look out, always on call. I admired the amazing view of Mount Diablo and the beautiful scenery that makes up the O’Neill property, dodging squirrel burrows that are everywhere!

Apparently the squirrels have multiplied so much they have invaded Mr. O'Neill's garden and have dug up some of his prized planters. I wondered why there would be so many squirrels in one place, don't the hawks and snakes eat some of them? I was also very amused by the sign, made of cardboard, that someone is using to block the bottom of the gate to the back garden. It reads "Squirrel Barrier" and has been munched all along the bottom of the sign, probably by – you guessed it – a squirrel.

I saw so many squirrels and ground squirrels that day I dreamed about them that night. My house was crawling with them, pathways and roads and the house itself caving in with the warren of tunnels dug everywhere. I don't think I've ever seen that many rodents in one place ... so I later did a search on the plays that Eugene O'Neill wrote.  

Not one was about a squirrel! Not even a mention of squirrels in any of them! I checked, I searched. Nada. Did the man know what would happen so soon after his death? The squirrel invasion is on!

If only he'd written something about the little brown rodents, maybe they would not haunt his house! Perhaps instead of The Iceman Cometh, he could have penned, The Squirrels Cometh. Just saying.

Loki, Squirrel Chaser, would like to know if the Park Service needs any help ... you know, in rounding the buggers up. He's available.