Early yesterday morning, I glanced out the window to check on Uriah. He was sitting in the bright morning sunshine; his head cocked to one side his ears up and forwards watching something near the line of trees.
Blinking I tried to focus on what caught his attention. I looked at the burn pile where green and beige grass stood up in uneven tuffs, dried branches and a pile of cuttings from the vegetable garden flopped over haphazardly.
I could see nothing out of the ordinary.
I looked back at Uriah. He was still staring; his head at a tilted angle, with his left ear pointing at the ground.
I tried again to focus, again. This time past the burn pile along the tree line. Fifty feet away there was a fuzzy grey squirrel, he was laying along the ground with his front paws on an acorn squash. I could see bright yellow splotches on the dark, dark green squash.
I blinked, then rubbed my eyes as the squirrel stood up off the ground, stood on the squash and jumped up, his downward pounce had the acorn squash roll slightly and he fell off.
The squirrel stood for a moment, staring at the squash. Positioned himself on the side towards the house, reached out slowly and put his front paws on the squash and pushed.
The squash rolled forward. He fell on his face, prone on the ground, back legs stretched out behind him front paws still touching the vegetable. Then, that squirrel jumped up, landed on top the squash and held on with his nails, as it rolled, very slowly, away from the burn pile, with the squirrel attached so he fell on the opposite side.
At this point I noticed I had tilted my head like Uriah, in a, what the..!!, stance.
I watched for a few more moments as that fuzzy grey squirrel circled the squash, with his tail flipping, analyzing the situation.
I called Uriah, he looked up at me, then back at the squirrel. He eyes rolled up towards me, then back at the squirrel. Like he was saying, “Can you believe this?
I decided I needed coffee I was hallucinating.
Photograph and upload by John Delano, of Hammond, Indiana http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sciurus_carolinensis_3.jpg
5 replies on “Squirrel VS. Acorn Squash”
You are an amazing writer. I hope after my writing classes the next few terms, I can have just a LITTLE bit of this talent.
Thank you for sharing your words. I really appreciate it!
*HUGS*
Beautiful Mess, Thank you for the praise, you are very sweet and you already are a talented writer.
Gerardine Baugh
I love the grey squirrels, they are very pretty and the only squirrels I ever saw growing up in Montreal. When I moved away, the squirrels became the black ones which are no where near as nice as the greys (they look much mor elike rats because their tails are no where near as fluffy).
I’ve seen only 1 squirrel in Madrid and that was in week 10 of being here. Its behaviour was also unexpected. I watched run several hundred meters on the ground (despite there being plenty of trees for it to clamber up) before climbing a tree all the way at the other end of a park.
Ha! Funny squirrel. 🙂
Becky, Later I found out he tore apart the mulch pile. In spring, I may have a lot of acorn squash growing in strange places:-)
Gerardine Baugh