Can't we just get along?

I didn't mind the one ground squirrel in our backyard.  I didn't mind the little family of 5 but now we are counting more than 7!!!  

The "live and let live" philosophy I've adopted is about to bite me in the butt--- er, at least the legs!  I'm worried I'll break my neck tripping in the holes.  Every morning when I go out to feed the birds I not only walk gingerly seeking out little doggie dumps but now I've got to search for squirrely holes.  I wish Cosmos would look at those holes as little toilets and do his business down one of them!  The church ground crew is telling me we've got holes in the front yard too.  The groundskeeper wants to poison them but is afraid the dog will get into it.  Remember my trip to the vet with "garbage gut?"  This could be fatal!!!  So we are trying to think of a humane way to get rid of ground squirrels while still feeding the birds and not killing off Garbage Gut (aka Cosmos).

I decided to arm myself with a camera and show you what I'm talking about.

These are not the same holes and they are just the ones I found while walking around the backyard for 3 minutes.  There are way more than this.

Next project: brick in the whole backyard....or something.