I’m Thankful for Squirrels (Thankfulness Week Day 3)
One of my neighborhood squirrels looking for the snack he buried.
Okay, this one is a bit weird, but it’s Saturday. I can be quirky, right? Today, I’m grateful for squirrels.
Not just any squirrels, but the ones that live in my neighborhood. We have mostly brown squirrels, but we also have one white one. I don’t think she’s albino. At least, she doesn’t have the pink eyes you usually think of with albinos. (How do I know she’s a she? My brother told me, which forced me to ask how he’d possibly gotten close enough to the squirrel to know that information.)
Anyway, the squirrels are a source of constant entertainment around here. Just about any time I look out the window, I see squirrels planting future trees for me to pull up. Squirrels, apparently, are forgetful of where they hide their winter snacks, and we have quite enough pecan trees, thank you. (It’s actually pretty cool to pull up an opportunistic little tree and find the split-open pecan still attached at the bottom. It’s like a mini-science lesson right there in your yard.)
I can go outside and watch one run like a high-wire artist across the power lines, hurtling
My dog looking for the squirrel who is already up the tree.
itself at a tree branch that doesn’t look strong enough to hold an ant. And don’t even get me started on the feud between the blue jays and the
squirrels. It’s like squirrel TV in my backyard.
But even more than I’m entertained, there’s my dog. She’s an old lab who doesn’t run around nearly as much as she used to, but when she sees a squirrel, she’s young again. I’m pretty sure the squirrels aren’t nearly as entertained by the whole thing as the dog is, but they certainly stay in shape when she’s around. Those things can go from zero to halfway up a tree in no seconds flat.
Maybe it’s weird to be thankful for squirrels, but then again, maybe it’s not. They have their place in the life of the neighborhood just like all the human families do. Plus, they’re loads of fun to watch.
