P I C N I C

Although Steve doesn’t appear to live in his house anymore he still shows up for nuts when I fill up the feeder. He seems to be doing well, although he’s still small. His traumatic childhood has made him even spunkier I think. He did initially live in the house for about a month when I first released him. Other big squirrels would show up and peek into the house but he would chirp aggressively and successfully defended his home and his hoard of nuts.

Steve is doing well although he is very skittish. He doesn’t get out of his house much and is very shy, so when I feed him I’ve been making a little lap fort so he can feel safe. He likes my hands, but when he sees the size of my whole body he gets a little scared.

This last Wednesday the cats brought in a baby squirrel and were torturing him in the dining room. I came home to find him shivering, curled up in a ball, but otherwise unhurt. My first thought was to try to reunite him with his mother, so I got out the ladder and climbed up to the squirrel house. Well, as I’m standing at the bottom, watching what he does, he starts climbing and sliding down the ladder, all 15 feet, and crawls back into my hands. That night I made him an oatmeal raisin porridge and filled up a hot water bottle to keep him warm.

He is still a child and wants to nurse. His teeth have come in but he doesn’t seem interested yet in nuts or even fruit. I put him out again in the squirrel house this weekend, but he wasn’t eating any of the food I left him or exploring around the tree. He was staying holed up inside. I decided I’ll need to raise him for a few weeks. It’s going to be difficult for him, without any siblings to share in squirrelly antics.

His name is Steve because he showed up the same day Steve Jobs died. That Wednesday felt like some cosmically bad day. Also on that day: GW got kicked out of the lot by the property owners. He is pretty depressed and not sure what to do.

For me and Ben last night I made a spinach quiche with celery salad.

The cats thought the quiche was edible but only barely so.

I’ve been feeding the squirrels in my backyard since the beginning of winter. The feeder used to be only 8 feet up the tree, but Tigger would chase the squirrels up into it then take a nap. Now it’s about 18 feet up.