Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Squirrels Need Provision Too

We used to live in a home which was surrounded by large trees. As the trees increased in size the neighborhood squirrels could travel from the front to the back of our large lot without ever touching the ground. They just leaped from tree to tree.

Our neighbor had hickory nut trees (hickory nuts are a squirrel's favorite food), and we had a large oak tree with lots of acorns, so the squirrels were quite contented to live there.

One morning I heard my mom start shouting, and she was knocking hard on the window in her room. I rushed in there because I was afraid the glass might break, and I didn't want her to get hurt. Also, I wondered why she was upset. What I saw out the window was hilarious.

The day before Mom had mopped the floor, and afterwards she propped the mop up (string end up) against our persimmon tree to dry. A squirrel had discovered the string part. When I looked out the window I burst out laughing. This little critter had chewed off much string from the mop. Big fluffy wads of it stuck out of it's mouth on both sides. All I could see was two tiny eyes, barely peeking over the top of the fluff, peering back at us through the window.

At that point it didn't matter what had happened to the mop. This funny picture was worth the loss of part of the mop. The squirrel probably had the plushest nest in town!

© 2009 Arlene Schwartzkopf