Filed under: Wildlife
I tend to chase off the gray squirrels when they’re acting dominant towards the others. Hey. This is my patio and my birdseed I’m sharing. Play nice or git, and stay off my amaryllis table! There are rules here!
So the two grays I tend to see have just enough of a healthy fear of people, rare for city squirrels around here, instilled by me. Although I’ve laughed a couple of times at one when he’s looked, considered the threat, and then turned his back, as long as I’m still safely inside and away, as if to say, If I can’t see you I can’t be afraid of you. So there.
It is so utterly human a gesture in such a small animal, this obstinate refusal to acknowledge what it doesn’t want to see if it doesn’t have to, that it makes me laugh each time it does it.
Or maybe it’s just on to me. I AM safe for him to be around.
But it also means I can open the door and he will all-out head for the hills looking guilty– while the one black one, now, when I open the door, stays. Trembling, slightly, sometimes, as the slider widens, hoping hard, semi-sure of what is to come.
I spotted my favorite this morning. (I have got to give it a name!) It was up in a tree, watching. I opened the door and held a large walnut piece up in the air.
That little thing scrambled down that tree and ran to the patio at a speed I’ve only ever before seen in a squirrel when it’s having a panic attack. Maybe it didn’t want the others to beat it over to me? The others must have thought it was nuts.
It has picked up quickly on what I want out of it and is completely willing to comply: do not cross this line between concrete sections to come closer to the house. You stay on your side. (I don’t need rodents chewing on my siding, trying to get in, no matter how cute they are like this one is.)
Next thing you know it’ll be trying on little handknitted capelets for me. In bright blue and red with a large S superimposed on another S. Super Squirrel! Mild-mannered Super Squirrel is really…if it can just wrestle this thing on, ’cause that lady isn’t stepping any closer…
…oh wait. We haven’t gotten around to it.
Okay. Re names: it has a circle of lighter, reddish fur around its round, baby-large eyes, giving it an almost Basset hound look. So: Helen Red-Eye? (Nooooo…!) Reddy, short for Reddy-to-run? Red-onkulus? Not sure of the gender yet, it’s not like the grays with their white belly fur.
Redwood, for the tree overhead? I’m sure my red-ers can help me out here.
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I’m too brain dead this early morning to think of a name. However, are you able to take a video of this cute little critter and post it?
Comment by Joansie 01.13.10 @ 6:22 amRedwood seems sufficiently gender-neutral, and still squirrelish.
Comment by Barbara-Kay 01.13.10 @ 7:01 amI vote for Redwood too. Lots of room for nicknames too, as its personality continues to emerge.
Comment by Channon 01.13.10 @ 8:13 amHow about Punky? Gender neutral I would think… Only a punky-style squirrel would put red liner around their eyes! lol
Comment by Suzanne in Mtl 01.13.10 @ 8:21 amHow about Spunky? “The others must have thought it was nuts.” Well, yeah! Walnuts.
Humor –
This just came in this morning. It’s a bit long, but, …
BIBLE SALES
A pastor concluded that his church was getting into very serious financial troubles. While checking the church storeroom,he discovered several cartons of new bibles that had never been
opened and distributed. So at his Sunday sermon, he asked for volunteers from the congregation who would be willing to sell the bibles door-to-door for $10 each to raise the desperately needed
money for the church.
Jack, Paul and Louie all raised their hands to volunteer for the task. The minister knew that Jack and Paul earned their living as salesmen and were likely capable of selling some bibles.
But he had serious doubts about Louie who was a local farmer, who had always kept to himself because he was embarrassed by his speech
impediment. Poor Louis stuttered badly. But, not wanting to discourage Louis, the minister decided to let him try anyway.
He sent the three of them away with the back seat of their cars stacked with bibles. He asked them to meet with him and report the results of their door-to-door selling efforts the following Sunday.
Anxious to find out how successful they were, the minister immediately asked Jack, “Well, Jack, how did you make out selling our bibles last week?”
Proudly handing the reverend an envelope, Jack replied, “Using my sales prowess, I was able to sell 20 bibles, and here’s the $200 I collected on behalf of the church.”
“Fine job, Jack!” The minister said, vigorously shaking his hand. “You are indeed a fine salesman and the Church is indebted to you.”
Turning to Paul, “And Paul, how many bibles did you sell for the Church last week?”
Paul, smiling and sticking out his chest, confidently replied, “I am a professional salesman. I sold 28 bibles on behalf of the church, and here’s $280 I collected.”
The minister responded, “That’s absolutely splendid, Paul. You are truly a professional salesman and the church is indebted to you.”
Apprehensively, the minister turned to Louie and said, “And Louie, did you manage to sell any bibles last week?” Louie silently offered the minister a large envelope.
The minister opened it and counted the contents. “What is this?” the minister exclaimed. “Louie, there’s $3200 in here! Are you suggesting that you sold 320 bibles for the church, door to door, in just one week?”
Louie just nodded. “That’s impossible!” both Jack and Paul said in unison. “We are professional salesmen, yet you claim to have sold 10 times as many bibles as we could.”
“Yes, this does seem unlikely,” the minister! agreed. “I think you’d better explain how you managed to accomplish this, Louie.”
Louie shrugged. “I-I-I re-re-really do-do-don’t kn-kn-know f-f-f-for sh-sh-sh-sure,” he stammered.
Impatiently, Peter interrupted. “For crying out loud, Louie, just tell us what you said to them when they answered the door!”
“A-a-a-all I-I-I s-s-said wa-wa-was,” Louis replied, “W-w-w-w-would y-y-y-you l-l-l-l-l-like t-t-to b-b-b-buy th-th-th-this b-b-b-b-bible f-f-for t-t-ten b-b-b-bucks —o-o-o-or— wo-wo-would yo-you j-j-j-just l-like m-m-me t-t-to st-st-stand h-h-here and r-r-r-r-r-read it t-to y-y-you??”
              Â
Comment by Don Meyer 01.13.10 @ 10:58 amRed Wood, or R. W. for short.
(which is silly, as Redwood has 2 syllables, and R. W. has four!)
How about rosso(Italian for red), rubicund(synonym of red), scarlet(synonym of red), or vermilion(synonym of red).
Happy naming!
Scarlet-o-hairy?
Scarlet-o-furry?
Just plain “Scarlet”?
Super Squirrel?
Comment by Marlene 01.13.10 @ 12:51 pmNutty…(like me?)…or Blackie? I kinda like Reddy, too, though. Nutso, Chompers, Twitchy, … Lightening (as in, bolts over to you), Stretch (reaching for nuts), Nibbles… whatever works for you, dear.
Comment by Karen L 01.13.10 @ 4:04 pmBTW, I got a bag of praline pecans from Christmas – not something of which I am fond, but perhaps too sugary for squirrels? We don’t want to start an obesity and diabetes epidemic, after all!
Let’s see, names – Sally Jesse Raphael (do I have that right?) wore red glasses, so “Sally”? So did Sarah Palin, I think, but you have to be Of That Ilk to use that name.
Why not after a movie star with red hair? Or “Titania,” since Titan was known for painting redheads.
Comment by Margo Lynn 01.16.10 @ 5:32 amLeave a comment
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