Spence Field Mice / a force to be reckoned with

[HooKooDooKu]

And I know that camping requires a permit now because the ranger thought it best to educate me in this particular hypothetical situation?

Sorry, but I don't quite follow... All I'm pointing out is that if you are caught camping without a permit, the results can be anything from getting a permit issued on the spot to being forced to march out of the back country and fined (perhaps even a court appearance from what I've heard).

[HooKooDooKu]

Those crazy meese at CS37 have learned to climb the food cables, for god’s sake. Or there’s flying squirrels in the area—is that true or just a story I heard?

It is NOT flying squires. The mice can climb the food cables, and it's not just at CS37.
1. I've been told by other hikers they have seen the mice climbing the cables.
2. Knowing the mice can climb the cables, I started to keep my food bag inflated... the idea being the food would be at the bottom of the bag, but would be too much of a slick "balloon" for the mice to be able to climb down the side of the bag to get to the food. That trick seemed to work at campsite #48 in July 2018 because by food bag was undamaged, but there was mouse poop on the top of my food bag in the morning.
3. Hung my entire pack from the cables at 47 covered with a garbage bag because I expected rain. Next morning, found tear marks in the garbage bag.
4. Fall of 2018, my trick of "inflating" the food bag failed at campsite #29. Fortunately, the mouse attacked the bag from the side where the trash was located and had little damage to my food (but it was time to buy a new food bag).

So from now on, I plan on using a mouse mobile to hang my food bag from the bear cables.

[DSPeabody]

Stayed at a shelter with a ridge runner in GSMNP one night when another camper wanted to setup mouse traps. The ridge runner didn't seem to object to the mouse traps, but did object to putting out bait (i.e. leaving out food).

That makes sense.