Without a doubt, the cutest inhabitants of our garden… and some of the most mischievous. During veggie growing season, I find all sorts of things … hollowed out tomatoes, nibbled cucumbers, toppled sunflowers, shaved lettuce, and lots and lots of dug holes. But, hey, if something isn’t eating your plants, then your garden isn’t part of the ecosystem. :) I actually love it - and I select certain things to grow each year just to please our little furry inhabitants.

Living across from acres of forest allows for a lot of backyard diversity. We have a number of chipmunks that live in our garden, in burrows between boulders. Occasionally a ground squirrel makes use of burrows under the catio. But most are frequent visitors from the forest, hitting up the garden salad bar or Tweet Tomatoes, our bird feeder zone. We have a raised bed out front that serves as the ‘deer buffet’ where they stop by to munch on yummy veggies and flowers.

While you might find better photos on the internet, nearly all of these photos were taken by us in our garden of our mammal visitors. Only the few identified as *** PLACEHOLDER are public photos. Also, an ‘N’ denotes a native species to our area.