So! One of our kitties dragged in a small baby squirrel saturday night. The little thing was terrified, and a bit bloody. It was cleaned off with some weak hydrogen peroxide and then placed in a little cat carrier with big soft towels.
In the morning, I took the little guy up gently and walked outside to the tall pine trees in the yard. He chirped softly in my hands, whilst I scanned the branches for the other squirrels. Suddenly, I saw a burst of movement and there was his mother. She sat looking down at me for a while. I realised that she must actually see the little baby squirrel in my hand. Their eyesight must be very good, because the way I held the squirrel you really couldn't see much of it. Anyways..I put the little baby on the tree trunk. It seemed old enough to have started eating solid food, and held onto the trunk and moved a bit. I backed off..and watched. In about half a minute the mother squirrel leapt from the uppermost branches to an adjacent tree trunk and then dashed down the bark toward the ground. Without hesitating she made a flying leap and landed directly below the baby. She sniffed it rapidly, darting glances all around her, before gently picking it up in her mouth. The baby obliged by rolling itself into a little furry ball, allowing her to scamper back up the tree with it, no doubt toward a nest of some sort. It was a beautiful thing to watch, and I felt all warm and fuzzy inside :) Then I thought about it a bit more. It was actually my cat that almost killed the baby squirrel, and though I rescued it this time...won't the cat just go after them again now that he knows where the nest is? It's not like he has anything better to do all day. Is this a 'natural order' thing, or is it an unnatural order since the cat normally would not be there? Or....is it natural for our backyard because..well it's our little environment and ecosystem and our cats are therefore a part of that? The wittle kitties in question can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20282...@n00/sets/72157619190339960/ The white and gray is an American short hair, we believe the black to be an Oriental mix. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:297945 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
