A recent visitor to the back yard, captured in black & white. At least it didn’t show an interest in making a nest inside the garage, as one squirrel did a few years ago. That creature was discouraged from returning by closing up the hole it had clawed near the roof, as well as an application of cayenne-pepper solution to nearby surfaces.

We thought of using the cayenne solution to discourage the dog from digging holes in the back yard, but so far we’ve taken a simpler tack — dumping a cup of water on her when we catch her doing it. So far that seems to work.