Categories
Journal Personal Pages

49th Ave Squirrel Posse

I’ve fed the squirrels in the back yard of our house in Saint Petersburg for a long time. In that time I’ve come to know a lot of them on what I considered a personal basis, in that there was some level of basic communication, even if it was just “Hey, peanut guy. Give me a peanut”.

Names were hung on some of them, just to differentiate them from the others, but there were plenty of others whose presence we liked, but who never received a name. These squirrels were wild critters. I never once thought of them as anything approximating pets. However, I met some noble souls out there, and I wanted to mention at least the ones that stuck out. We still talk about some of those squirrels. Even the ones that are long gone. They deserve at least a mention here.

  • Whiteybefriended our beloved Spartacus.
  • Lolaadventurous and bawdy floozee.
  • Missy Missa sweetie who took peanuts from our hands.
  • Alberta sweet, playful, if hefty, boy.
  • Greyhindquarters were mostly grey.
  • Browniehad interesting brown coloring on feet and face.
  • Little Brownielooked similar to Brownie, only smaller.
  • Longnosetook peanuts from our hands.
  • Scritchscarred on left hind quarter.
  • Scratchscarred on right side.
  • Criphad problems with right hind leg.
  • Frostylooked like her front had been dipped in white paint.
  • Chunkyanother hefty boy.
  • Lil’ Bearone of Sunny’s babies, died of some sort of cancer.

If we learned anything from the constant rotation of personalities out there in the back yard, it’s that squirrels have a very high mortality rate. Of all the squirrels we knew out there, only a couple remained constant for any length of time. Some disappeared about as soon as we got used to seeing them around. But we feel honored to have made their acquaintance in the short time they were here. The gave us a sense of wonder, and we gave them peanuts and sunflower seeds. It was a fair exchange.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x
Close Bitnami banner
Bitnami