A Squirrel Tale
How do you like my profile? I had this photo taken last summer when the grass was green and the sun was warm. Let me tell you all about me. I am not just an ordinary squirrel. Well, really I am an ordinary brown squirrel. But it’s where I live that makes me so very extraordinary. I have my own condo! That doesn’t mean I live in a condo. What it means is I have my very own condo building with thirty-two patios. Did you hear me? Thirty-two patios. Don’t you think that’s impressive? Well let me tell you about some of them. The ground floor ones are the easiest. I was on one tonight……(shh - don’t tell anyone)……..that had tulip bulbs, and daffodil bulbs and the juiciest succulents. So good. Lovely and cold. At this time of year, there’s really not much variety but when I run out on one patio, I go to the next. I try and get my groceries when no one is watching, but every now and then there’s a loud banging on the windows, or someone yells at me. Some humans are so rude! They’re just not into sharing!
The second story ones are tricky. It’s easy to race up the trees, but I have to leap from the skinniest of branches onto the patios. Success is all in my balance, and of course, skill. But that is still not the hardest. If I get caught on one of those patios, I usually have to hide behind a pot or under a chair. Leaping back onto those skinny branches is death defying! But I’m getting pretty good at it. The crows can be pretty scary when they dive bomb me when I’m in mid flight. In summer, the leaves hide me, but this time of year..........! There's not many groceries there anyway. So, for the most part I stay on the ground, making my rounds from one patio to the next. I’m looking forward to the new gardens the humans will be planting. I’d like to think that they plant them just for me - and my friends, the deer - but somehow I doubt it. Like I said, they’re not really into sharing.
“The smaller the creature, the bolder its spirit.”
~ Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
No comments:
Post a Comment