January 21st was Squirrel Appreciation Day!
In honor of that, I’d like to tell you a little story today about Mommy Squirrel.
I originally told this story in my Thoughts On Thursday back in November 2019, and I wanted to share it again.
Before I got remarried and moved to Cape Canaveral I had a house with several bird feeders in the backyard. OK, let’s face it, they actually turned out mostly to be squirrel feeders because I would have up to 11 squirrels at a time eating from them.
Of all of those squirrels. there was one special squirrel that I called Mommy Squirrel (yes, such an imaginative name I must admit). I could always recognize her because she had fur missing from the tip to about the middle of her tail.
Mommy Squirrel was a very unique, extremely intelligent squirrel.
When she was nursing she would jump up on the screened porch so that I could see that she was nursing and then just yell and yell and yell until I would come and fill the feeders.
Each year when her babies were old enough to be out and about she would bring them for me to see. She would line them up and yell until I came out to see what she wanted. Then she would groom them so I could see the current year’s amazing batch of babies. I would always tell her that they were a very fine group this year. She always seemed quite proud of them.
It was quite a fun and heart-warming experience every year.
One day I was working outside with the garage door open. I was in and out, going to the backyard and so forth and I noticed Mommy Squirrel up on the roof. She just kept chattering at me and would follow me everywhere I went.
Finally I walked out of the garage and asked her, “OK what do you want?”
She looked at me and ran to the corner of the garage. I followed her. I stood there and asked. “Okay what is it?”
Then I heard a scratching sound in the downspout and I realized there was something in there. I went in and I got the hammer and I pulled the anchor brackets loose so I could pull the downspout away from the garage.
I was pulling it down and once it got to a certain angle this little baby squirrel came shooting out of it, landed on the ground and ran to the back yard. Mommy Squirrel went running to the back of the garage roof and jumped off.
I finished taking the downspout off and walked to the backyard to see Mommy Squirrel and the baby squirrel just sitting there waiting for me. They chattered at me a little and then ran off.
That was the coolest experience because yes I saved the life of the baby squirrel but also I listened to Mommy Squirrel. I paid attention to what she was trying to tell me when she was asking for my help.
So let me ask you this: how often do you actually pay attention to things especially to what the earth and nature are asking you to do? Do you treat those things as distractions that should be ignored or do you actually reach out and listen?
You may think it is just “chatter” or a distraction or an irritation, but sometimes it is not. Sometimes it’s a sign leading you to where you need to go. So ask if it is something you need to pay attention to! It may be your next big thing or even little thing in life!
It’s just something to think about that I wanted to share that with you.
If you’d like to see me and a special guest star or two talk about Mommy Squirrel, check out my video here https://youtu.be/wEjFgDHo2dI
P.S. the accompanying picture above was one of a photoshoot I was having done and the unexpected guest just happened to drop in to pose for a picture. I just seem to have a way with squirrels!
