Day #9

We have a large tree outside that, every day for the past month, looks like it has been through a terrible storm — branches and leaves litter our driveway and fall on our cars. Thing is, we’ve had no storms — or wind, for that matter. Meanwhile, our driveway and our cars are a mess.

For the longest time, I thought something was terribly wrong.  It looked like the tree was dying — except that it wasn’t.  Since our terrific rains last winter, it has grown — almost doubled in size!  There’s new growth and lush, green leaves everywhere. Husband and I would debate daily about whether to call in the tree doctor.

Until I saw this guy . . . or his kin.

He was high up in the tree, leaping from branch to branch.  At first, I thought he was playing, but then, he stopped, and gnawed for a while on a branch while leaves fell everywhere. Within seconds, he’d successfully sawed off that branch and was carrying a foot-long piece in his mouth while he scurried through the canopy.

He is brazen, I’ll give him that. Every morning, just as I’m getting in my car,  a branch will fall on my head — the car already strewn with refuse.  I have now become the crazy neighborhood lady, yelling at the tree tops, “Get out of my tree, you stupid squirrel!” and grabbing my camera so I have proof.

The day before yesterday, just as Husband and I were about to take the dog out for a walk, we looked up at the sky that was falling, and there were four — FOUR — scurrying squirrels. Our tree has become a banquet table for an entire community. I tried to get Toby to see them, to get riled up enough to bark at them, but the poor dog is near blind and he just kept thinking I had treats, so he wasn’t about to bark.

Then, yesterday afternoon, my daughter started laughing and pointed out the back door, up at the gutters along the roof.  One squirrel, with a giant acorn in his mouth, was playing in the gutters. He was rolling around, up and down, in and out. I grabbed my camera, but by the time I opened the back door, he’d climbed out of the gutter and up the roof line to a safer distance.

I took one more shot before he shot out of there, chasing a buddy over the roof and back to my tree.  My poor tree.