Stalker Squirrel

It’s good to be nice to animals. In the reincarnation scheme of things, at least.

There are cute squirrels in our garden. I don’t know why I consider them cute, since Jay has pointed out that they are from the rodent family. I also have a box of almonds. I proceeded to leave a few almonds on our deck. The nuts were gone the next day. So I left a couple more and thought nothing of it.

Later that afternoon, I glimpsed movement on the deck and noticed a squirrel picking up the last nut. How cute, I thought. I opened a window and threw some more nuts out. Big mistake.

The squirrel ate all the nuts, jumped up to the kitchen window and clawed at the glass. It also stood right outside the sliding door and stared in. It looked like it was staring. I couldn’t really tell because I wasn’t sure how far squirrels could see and plus, our door was made of glass and the reflection should confuse the poor animal. But no. The animal figured out that food came from behind the glass and wanted more. I was petrified, mostly because it wasn’t petrified of me.

The squirrel hung outside for about half an hour and left. The next afternoon, it came by again, clawing at the window and staring in front of the sliding door. Thank goodness it is winter and the windows are shut. I hid behind my computer. This farce repeated itself for another afternoon.

It is Day 4 of Squirrel Watch and thankfully, my stalker has not appeared. I’d love to give the squirrels a leg-up in the evolutionary food chain with a couple of almonds now and then, but I think a healthy distance between human and squirrel is imperative for the relationship to work.

Funny, I used to think they were cute.