Gallivanting Geismom: The Missing Squirrel Blog

That title could be misconstrued. This blog is not about a Missing Squirrel, although at times, I did question his or her whereabouts. No.....this is an attempt to identify the fact that although I had plenty of Squirrel blogs whirling through my head, the winter has come and gone without any making it to print. And, I know that some of my blog followers have been disappointed. I apologize.

So, let me offer you a quick synopsis as we head into the first day of Spring.
As expected, sneaky DID show up in the fall.

And as I was enjoying my breakfast one Sunday morning, he peered through the window as if to dare me into challenging him.

When he hopped on over to the bird feeder to raid it for food, I realized that there was no way I could avoid my slinky standby or the birds would never get a meal.

My husband was more than willing to brave the elements to ensure an adequate supply of food for the birds.

In the meantime, I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to unload a rather large quantity of nuts that I had recently stumbled upon.

How could Sneaky ask for anything better than that? It was like a bowl full of nuts....free for the taking.

Wouldn't you be enticed by such an offer? Well, apparently Sneaky felt otherwise. Because days turned into weeks, and the nut stash never dwindled.

One of my friends suggested that I crack the nuts open for the squirrel. I casually mentioned that I did NOT want to be a helicopter parent to Sneaky and that he could certainly figure out how to crack open a nut.

He was a SQUIRREL for goodness sake!

But as the month went by with no obvious interest, I found myself out on the back deck with a nutcracker in hand, breaking open some prime nutmeats for Sneaky. It didn't seem right....but what was I to do? It seemed a waste to just toss them.

It soon became obvious that my efforts were for naught. Once again, days went by without any interest. I was beginning to wonder what had happened to Sneaky. Was he Scared? Had he suddenly become Shy?

Was he Suspicious about the easy-to-get snack?

Had he become Side-lined by some sort of malady?

Then, one day, after being out of town for a few days, I looked out on the back deck and saw this:

Obviously, Sneaky had struck!

But, how could I know that it was Sneaky and not some other nut hungry creature? I immediately filled the feeder again, and waited to see just who showed up.

Once again, I peered out daily, and there was no sign of any nuts disappearing. The days turned into weeks, and I found myself in the same dilemma as before , only this time I was NOT going outside to crack open any of the nuts.

Then, much to my surprise, I spotted some activity on the back porch.

It was Sneaky! And he was making his way up the pole to raid the nuts!

I watched him land on the rail and crack the nut

then take a quick look around to be sure no one was watching

as he scrambled along the railing and disappeared down below the deck.

Then he popped up under the feeder and started the process all over again. Up on one side, down on the opposite. I wondered how he didn't get dizzy!

It was quite obvious to me that Sneaky was Stashing those nuts somewhere under my deck. Something tells me that I can expect quite the collection of nut trees sometime in the near future.

Of course, I can't be too certain that Sneaky safeguarded all of the nuts for himself as Red showed up a few times as well.

But little Red is tiny enough to climb the slinky as if they were a set of stairs, making it quite easy for him to raid the seeds.

Luckily, Red is quite skittish, and one knock on the window sent him scattering along at quick speed, so I highly doubt he was involved with cleaning out the nuts.

Spring arrives tomorrow, and it seems a shame to have missed out on Sneaky's adventures.

I had the socks to remind me: