CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE SQUIRREL KIND!

The Cat

The Squirrel

The First Encounter






Found the golden nugget

Burying the treasure

The Second Encounter




Close Encounter of the Third Kind


I was witness to this little ongoing drama in my front yard this morning. Dante was on leash, but with a 40-ft. lead which provides sufficient space for stalking. We have a resident squirrel who lives in the spruce tree which borders our purroperty and our neighbour's. This is not an evil squirrel like ones we have encountered before. This is a mama squirrel who is only trying to forage for food to feed her babies.

Ms. Squirrel is a cheeky little thing, though, and quite daring at that. She doesn't seem purrticularly threatened by the feline purresence. She is more interested in getting her message across to me, that I need to fetch nuts -- and now!

She will come quite close and look me directly in the eye, and wait (not so patiently) until I return with what she treasures most.

So, I scattered a handful of peanuts (in the shell) after which she busily hopped around gathering them one by one -- keeping one eye on Dante, but determined to collect them all. You can see how close she comes to Dante a number of times. On this occasion Dante did rise to the bait (so to speak) and gave chase, but luckily Ms. Squirrel is lighter and faster and easily escaped -- only to find a spot at the edge of the drive where she buried her newly acquired booty. (Actually, there's a nice booty shot of her burying it, there.)

So, it was a regular game of cat and squirrel -- stalk and retreat, stalk and retreat, snatch and grab (the treat, that is).

Finally, Ms. Squirrel had enough for the day and she retired to her tree house for a little R&R and some quality time with her little ones.

Dante was left to ponder the one that got away (again)!