The word of the day for December 30, 2007 is “squirrel” — Function: noun / 1: any of various small or medium-sized rodents (family Sciuridae, the squirrel family): as a: any of numerous New or Old World arboreal forms having a long bushy tail and strong hind legs. b: ground squirrel. 2: the fur of a squirrel.
Lloyd has gone back to sleep while I go off to church. I put “pee-papers” down in the hallway and a gate across the end of the hall. Hopefully, the puppy will get the idea while I’m gone. If not, I may have to train him to clean up his own mess. It’s too cold to leave him outside for morethan ten or fifteen minutes. Still, he likes to sit by the patio doorand watch for the squirrel that comes over into our back-yard elm.
The squirrel has a nest in our maple in the front. During the last storm (before we got Bubbles) the squirrel came down the trunk slowly, head first. About two feet or half a meter from the ground, he stretched out his front paws and felt around in the wind and driving snow. His little eyes were squinched shut, so I think he was feeling for the ground. He put his paws back on the tree and moved down a few inches and tried again. Next time he was able to jump down the last few inches and wend his way to the street and across to the neighbor’s walnut tree through the drifts. Such an effort for the poor thing.
I wish I could have gotten the camera out quickly enough to take a photo. The squirrel above is a friend of Lloyd's who lives in one of the local parks.
The quote for the day is from Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. “Art,” Essays, First Series (1841, repr. 1847):
A squirrel leaping from bough to bough, and making the wood but one wide tree for his pleasure, fills the eye not less than a lion,—is beautiful, self-sufficing, and stands then and there for nature.
:^) Jan the Gryphon
1 comment:
Hi Jan, are your squirrels grey ones or black ones ? I hadn't seen black ones before I visited Canada years ago...but think that maybe they are the most you have over the water ? what a determined wee character that one was...Another meaning of Squirrel...is more me....I keep squirrel ing things away....just in case...one day it might came in handy !!! Have a good last day of the year and remember to watch out for the man with as many noses as there is days in the year/ Love Sybil xx
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