Recently we’ve had a visitor on the balcony
hiding from the snow, and eating the bird food. Yesterday, The Beast
and the squirrel
met
separated by several panes of glass. Both wanted more from their relationship, so the squirrel was back today
looking for his friend
Eventually The Beast woke up and came out
but by this time the squirrel was off elsewhere on his adventures
SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!
Seconded
omgodomgodomgodomgodomgodomgodomgodtooooooooooooooocute!
ahem
I mean, nice photography there old chap. Good show.
[death by cute]
Awwwwwwwww! Sooooo cute!
Are you sure The Beast’s intentions are friendly? Here I am live-blogging the removal of a dead mouse from my lounge floor. I wondered why the cat was jumping around so much and then I saw the gift that she had left for me.
This just confirms my suspicions that squirrel species the world over have an intrinsic death wish.
A squirrel tried to eat a ballpoint pen I left outside once and to confirm Kristi’s point jumped off the balcony 2 stories up when I chased it. It survived and ran away, but I think they’re pretty much crazy brave.
I used to have a Shetland Sheepdog that loved to chase squirrels; they would get very cheeky, and wait until the last moment to run up the cedar trees in the backyard. They seemed oblivious to the fact that most collie dogs have impressive vertical leaping ability, and on more than one occasion, my Sheltie had squirrel tail hairs in his mouth.
The squirrels in my garden drive my cats insane. I let them out once to do their best, and the squirrel practically laughed at them as it climbed to safety (Google is a somewhat decent climber, but Saba has problems staying on the sofa, let alone a tree branch).
We get brown, grey and black squirrels, but not tufty-eared ones.
Cute! love the hair on its ears.
mmmmm….maybe the cutest hairdo by a squirrel ever?
😉
Reminds me of Beatrix Potter’s Squirrel Nutkin.
Yet another squirrel with a death wish.
I’m picturing Bob stalking the two with his camera.
And I’ve just made peace with all squirrels in the world after seeing that picture of little tufty-ears on the flower pot (or whatever it is).
love the hair on its ears
Really? I always thought that was a bit of a turn-off?
Agree – nice photos Bob. But what’s with the last one being sideways? Are you trying to make us all exercise our neck muscles? 😉
Nice story and nice pics (like a comic strip!). Hope you’ll let us know if The Beast succeeds in his search for friendship (or food) 🙂
In his younger days, our cat Fred
liked to chase squirrels. Being, as he is, of a grayish appearance, he could infiltrate a gaggle (posse? drey? snurgle?) of squirrels without them noticing and then launch his attack from within. At our last house but two, a neighbour reported that on opening his shed, three gray forms shot out – two squirrels, pursued by young Fred.
a gaggle (posse? drey? snurgle?) of squirrels
A drey or – more fittingly – scurry, apparently. I love collective nouns.
So do I. In a poetry anthology I had at school, an author had suggested some new ones including
a bundle of boys
a giggle of girls
Both of which sound very suitable juddging from what I see in my kids’ school playground. I wonder what suitable collective nouns might be for graduate students, postdocs, lab technicianss and so on …?
A coffee room of postdocs?
A rig of electrophysiologists
A compulsion of molecular biologists
A cross of geneticists
An anlage of developmental biologists
An accessibility of NN bloggers
A whinge of S … errr, never mind 😉
A precipitate of crystallographers…
A maze of behaviourists…
An aggregate of tags…
Thanks, Bob, a rightfully popular Friday post. No need for more science.
It’s a curious thing that red squirrels are infinitely cuter than greys. Something to do with the ear tufts, and the way they move (read Moominland Midwinter for a real insight into this).
Nope, that’s the right way up.
@Bob – red (aka ginger) is always best. C’mon – I thought everybody knew that!
The Tamworth pigs think that ginger is best, of course.