The phone repair man came out and found the problem in my line-
squirrels had chewed through the little screen under the eaves where the phone line entered the attic. So far so good.
But then the man tells me that when he’s testing a line the critters get interested in it and start chewing right then.
Does this make any sense?
Can they detect the magnetic field around the cable? (Standard 4 sets of twisted pair inside plastic)
(Somehow I seem to have edited out that the squirrels had actually chewed through the cable inside the attic - he pulled it out and showed me the various bite marks)
Color me dubious. My guess would be that the man mucks around at the top of the pole and then comes down to test his work, at which point the squirrels go investigate what the man has been up to.
I used to have a cocker spaniel that would answer the phone, but that’s a bit different than what you’re talking about.
Now I have this image of squirrels across the United States monitoring phone lines and reporting back to Dick Cheney on interesting conversations…
Most of them do, but some report to Al Qaeda instead. If you see a squirrel with a turban, report it right away. 
I once left a voicemail for an elephant in my pajamas.
No turbans, but I have been keeping an eye on this suspicious character.
“Squirrel in a burqua” is way funnier, just for future reference
Okay, I’ll bite.
What’s an elephant doing checking your voicemail?
I’m certain that they are the eavesdroppers for the deer in the woods. I’ve only ever seen deer in the woods on days that I didn’t tell anyone by telephone that I’m headed out.
The porcupines, of course, handle the e-mail interceptions.
It’s a little known fact that specially trained squirrels are used by the U.S. Army to debug malfunctioning field telephone systems.
There is very little stray magnetic field emanating from such a twisted pair phone line. That’s why the pairs are twisted; the twisting causes the magnetic field around one wire to be largely canceled out by that from the other wire of the pair.
To heck with that, what was it doing in Cervaise’s pajamas?
You’re right!
Pajamas are an odd place to store voicemail messages!