Coffee with Squirrels on the Side

My breakfast is getting later and later, even though I am arriving in the kitchen earlier and earlier. This is all due to the fact that my lovely deck has become a short order café! And I do mean short, as I have yet to see a tall squirrel. I am a real sucker for cute, and squirrels have always filled the bill. When the kids were small, we traveled all different times of the year. We were always traveling by car or by motorhome, and I would stock it liberally with nuts (other than me and the kids)!

It seemed that every place we pulled into was highly populated with squirrels. My husband was sure to point out all the “don’t feed the squirrels” signs. I swear those were the first words my children learned! Almost immediately, I would haul out huge bags of nuts. My hubby’s pleading fell on deaf ears. “Oh, look aren’t they cute,” the three of us would say followed by, “can we feed them, please mom?” Yes, but try not to get bit,” I cautioned, “the squirrels might get grabby.” By this time, my husband had walked far enough away so that no one would possibly know that he was my husband and their father!

Now, I live on four acres of Heaven. There is a pond with frogs and fish. Occasionally, we are treated to deer and once in a while a Great Blue Heron. The deck is across the back of the house and on a good day in Summer I can get my beloved froggers to answer me. (I know that I could be committed, so if they croak back I am absolutely vindicated!) This year, I have three baby squirrels and their parents. Like any farmer, worth his or her salt, the critters are fed first. So, my baby squirrels have their bowls of yummy seeds on the deck along with empty baby food jars filled with water. Their “parents” have a large feeder attached firmly to the deck railing, with a removable jar.

My mornings begin with filling the huge jar and numerous small bowls that the dogs “said” I could use! After I get this all done, it is noon or close to it. I settle in a chair in a corner of the “zoo” and sip coffee. I never hand feed, my concession to health, but I talk to them in soft low tone that they have become accustomed to. I literally overdose in cuteness.

At age 81, sometimes my vision is a bit skewed. One morning I totally freaked because of a large dried leaf by the barbeque. It looked from a distance like a dead baby squirrel. I wrote this off, attributing it to the time I had a teeny baby bat on the deck. I tucked it in my bra while I called the zoo. It was probably the first time any caller had requested the “bat department!” (There is one – by the way.) That incident did not have a good ending, but I did try. So, I will content myself with my own small “wild kingdom” as I have my coffee, with squirrels on the side, each morning!