Rare moment: a squirrel quietly taking in the evening view from his front porch.
Wild animals are full of surprises. Just when you thought you knew all their habits, live long enough and keep your eyes open, and one will startle you with some behavior you’ve never seen before.
Case in point, this handsome young rodent. I’d only gotten home from work and was headed out to sweep off the front porch when I spied him through the window, in repose on the arm of my rocking chair.
In my lifetime of experience enjoying the antics of gray squirrels, I’ve yet to see one come to a full, sustained stop. I place them on the behavioral continuum somewhere between hummingbirds and black-footed ferrets. In short, they are perpetual motion machines, always on the move and forever up to mischief.
But here was this furry gent, simply chillin’ (to use the vernacular) on the front porch rocker, in no particular hurry to go anywhere. Not one whisker poised in the slightest for action. Indeed by all appearances, he seemed interested in nothing more than simply basking in the lovely evening, letting the breeze fluff his coat, and watching whatever action was out there pass him by.
How charming. How unexpected … for a squirrel, that is.
Remember the baby squirrels in the cedar tree at the duplex? I loved when, as they matured, they ventured further down the tree. You would rattle the door knob and they would jump on the tree and freeze motion. :)