I was sitting inside when the cats and dogs all perked up and were very interested in something outside. I left them all locked up and went to investigate. In the backyard I heard a couple thunks and a rattle, and then the rain spout suddenly started chattering at me!

Silly squirrel. Looking for the corn that wasn’t in the feeder (oops) and he slipped down the rain gutter. The problem is that I have a rain diverter on that particular stretch of gutter and it was plugged with leaves as well (which explains why my rain barrel is empty despite all our rain.) Here’s the video. Spoiler: the squirrel makes it out! As a bonus, the leaves are now cleaned out of my diverter.