Angry wildlife
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This is the time of the year when nature is really cranky. Romeo let us know about it.At least I think it was The Squirrel Formerly Known as Romeo. Clementine flushed him out during end-of-day shutdown backyard check. And typical of her fine hunting blood, she didn’t care in the least that a big orange-y mass of fur went scooting up the tree just in front of her. Here and in St. Jo, we’ve got the big Red Fox Squirrels — kind of hard to miss, except to a coonhound apparently. She had other more pressing matters to attend to, I suppose. But Romeo was NOT … HAPPY!!!
I’ve heard the chitter-chitter scolding thing squirrels do. I’ve never heard it sound quite this profane before — like what comic strips mean when they say “@%#&!!!” I’ve also never had a squirrel come back down the tree so that we wouldn’t miss a single syllable. I expected to see spittle flying from his mouth. If his eyes look glittery in the photo, that could be the effect of the flash, but then again his eyes might have really looked like that. I was a little afraid to turn my back on him to go back into the house, just in case he felt like being kamikaze squirrel.I don’t know what he’s got to be so crotchety about. Or maybe I do. As I recall, last year at this time, Romeo had a Juliet. I don’t know where she went to, but now he’s just an angry young man. There better not be any little beer cans or cigarette butts showing up under that tree or I’ll call animal control on his fluffy tail.
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Little-known fact: Most squirrels are religiously motivated, so the chittering, roughly translated, was either “Vengence is mine, sayeth the Lord!” or “Allah Akbar.”
The Unitarian ones just get really pushy about joining a committee.
Now I’m concerned about what religion he was! If I see him again, I could ask. But then sometimes *that’s* offensive.
I think we may have to sell the house.
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[…] And anyway, there were other things to keep her busy. There was sniffing to do. Last week’s snow and ice has been receding every day, and though the ground underneath is still a study of different shades of brown, things are definitely changing. While Clementine completed her circuit of the yard looking for scents of Interesting Things, she missed the sight of Romeo the Squirrel making his uncertain way along the top of the fence. Up from hibernation, Romeo had no interest in chittering at Clementine. Such was his pressing need to take in some nourishment. He was carrying an enormous walnut he had dug up, and though he was still woozy and unbalanced, he made a big jump back onto the maple tree and regained his nest in no time, like a guy getting home with the beer and franks just in time for the game. […]