Scaredy Squirrel

And she shall call him Acorn.


Several weeks ago, Lilie got it into her mind that she would catch the squirrel that lives in our big ash tree. To me his name is always Bob or George. I like good solid names like that in squirrels. Lilie decided that Bob needed to be our buddy. She wanted to look at him, study him. Secretly I think that she was hoping to learn the magic behind scaling trees and wires . . .

I study him every morning, out the window, while I wash the dishes. He and his "friend" chase one another up and down our pine trees, accomplishing great feats of acrobatics as they fly through the air from branch to branch and around and around and around and around the trunks. Playing peek-a-boo.

Many in our fair city detest these hyper little rodents. They eat their strawberries, apples, plums, sunflowers, cherries, etc. and apparently do damage to homes and cause power outages. Besides, they're not really indigenous to the area.

I, however, love them. (What's a little power outage, anyway?) I think they are one of the most fascinating creatures to watch. If I had to be any animal, it would probably be a squirrel. Like this one. LOL. :)

Back to Lilie.

I let her come up with her primitive "traps" - using things like our cooler - with cherries tomatoes as bait. :) When I mentioned Lilie's obsession to my neighbor, she offered the use of her real squirrel trap. Which she uses to catch the little monsters that eat her fruit. She then takes them to Animal Control . . . and . . . dum, dum, duuummmmm. Of course we had no desire to "dum, dum, dum" George. We just wanted to look at our little friend.

We set up the trap with half the sunflower head from our garden. As I was getting lunch ready, I looked out the window and saw our crazy little critter bouncing around the trap. Lilie was SO excited! She ate her lunch in record time. Elsie immediately decided that she didn't really like mac-n-cheese (even though she's been asking for it for a week!) and rushed out the door before I could come up with a threat (for not eating any lunch).

We thoroughly enjoyed watching our buddy freak out while buzzing around his dungeon. He, on the other hand, was not thrilled and in his zealous attempts to ram himself through the 1-inch square holes, was banging up his noggin pretty good. We really wanted to hold on to him till Hazel got home from school, but I'm pretty sure he would have had a heart attack by then.

Lilie christened him "Acorn" and then raised the hatch and watched him rush back to his nest.

Poor little fella. We've probably scarred him for life, but it was really fun to see him up close. I've probably committed some sort of crime by letting him go - seeing as how there's an enormous fine for anyone who releases any squirrels in Idaho Falls (they really are a huge nuisance). But we could never end Acorn's life. He's been our buddy for years.