"Ennui" (aka "Existential Squirrels")

As inordinate level of detail went into this particular panel. Here's some of the behind-the-scenes trivia that went into the process of creating it. Consider it an example of mentally trying to mentally herd cats squirrels as they scamper away inside my attention span before escaping out across the page.

As per my usual MO everything begins with an innocent doodle, which in this case quickly escalated beyond the confines of any random piece of scrap paper, and necessitated penciling out onto a full-sized piece of Bristol (still only within the dimensions of 9x12").

Observant viewers will note the initial inclusion of a tenth squirrel in the upper right-hand corner, with most of the cryptic imagery taking place off-panel. But even that suggestion was a bit too much even for my personal survival-mode of gallows humor, which works for me, but really isn't a place I'm comfortable with anymore, especially since not too long ago I lost several friends within the space of two years to suicide. Sore spot I guess.

My personal coping mechanisms aside, it's an all-too common occurrence up here, so I'm more sensitive to the topic than most. I mean, it's a given that there will be some folks offended enough as it is what with all the smoking & drinking, so hey, one taboo topic at a time per panel. 

As of this writing we've stalled out at a total of fifty-nine transplanted squirrels around the homestead, far eclipsing the infamous invasion of 2019. During the intervening year our approach was a live-and-let-live truce with the occupant who was the last squirrel standing, but it got chased away by a wave of invaders, no doubt in part heralded by a phenomenon of spruce trees going into overdrive cone production called "masting." 

It got so bad I borrowed a second live trap, which in turn led to a couple record-breaking afternoons of catching six per day - sometimes returning after transporting one to find another was caught during the time it took to "rehome" another. Nevertheless, number sixty can stay, and we have been watching him settle in, stashing his caches and defending his newfound empire from incursions.

Most days I had better things to do that shuttle rodents around the this neck of the woods - though it does provide a modicum of satisfaction knowing one of the more un-neighborly residents has had to deal with a mysterious wave of immigrants. And a neighbor also recently commented on the comparative dearth of squirrels around their digs, which can be directly attributed to our place evidently being the black hole of squirreldom in Ester.