Brown Fur
March 29th, 2007 - 7:29 am
When I walked Lin out to the truck to see him off, the large black street cat from who knows where was chasing a small and slow-moving squirrel. It was so slow-moving that when Lin chased off the cat, he almost stepped on the squirrel. I figured it was probably already injured and the death of the squirrel as a sure thing no matter how far we chased the street cat, but I kept the cat at bay while Lin drove off, and then I warily investigated the small patch of brown fur hiding in the tall grass of my yard.
He was still alive, but not running away. Not even attempting to run away … just laying there in the tall grass looking at me with big baby squirrel eyes. I poked at him gently with my foot. He crawled forward about two inches. I tried to turn him over with the toe of my shoe, expecting to find some horrible wound that would present me with the dilemma of whether or not to let nature takes its course or do something about an injured squirrel, but this time, he expressed a little more vigor and hopped 6 inches away from me. Keeping the cat away, I herded the small creature to the driveway a few inches at a time, so I could get a better look at him. As he toddled ever so slowly up my driveway and towards the house, I examined him for any obvious signs of injury. Finding none. I left him to lay there on the pavement while I made a grand gesture of moving about in my yard and schppppt-ing at the street cat, who eventually moved off to a comfortable distance one yard over.
I returned to the squirrel to find him making much better progress in the direction of my Dodge. I watched as he slipped under the car, and heard him rustling about for a while. The street cat still seemed a little too interested, so I passed through the house to open the gate to the back yard. The street cats do go in there from time to time, but they are all rather timid about doing so, what with the various collections of dogs on all sides. I opened the gate and went to look under the rear of the car. I didn’t see any squirrel, but I did hear a ruckus of rustling near the front of the car moving towards the gate.
When I got back around to the gate side of the car, there he was in the corner of the gate and house, trying to climb the fence. He still wasn’t running away, but he was being far more lively … chattering slightly as I approached and flicking his tail. I reached a point he felt uncomfortable with, and he bolted to the neighbor’s yard and laid down under a tree still chattering and flicking his tail. I took one step forward, and he was gone. Vanished into the nearby shrubs.
There were no external injuries, and all his body parts seemed to be working for him as they should, only in slow motion. He didn’t seem to be behaving as though he were in pain of any sort. I guess he was just worn out. There’s no telling how long the cat had been chasing him, and you know cats like to take their time chasing things before actually killing them. Squirrels may be fast, but like sprinters, they burn out quickly. More quickly than a cat anyway.
The cat may get him at a later date, but at least not this morning and not in my yard. The last I saw of the great black menace, he was bouncing off down the road in search of prey not being watched over by humans. Sorry to have spoiled his breakfast plans.
So I saved a baby squirrel, even though I gripe endlessly about the army of squirrels we have here and how they eat everything in sight. Good deed for the day performed before 9 am. Does that mean I get to be mean, rude, and ranty for the rest of the day? 
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2 Responses to “Brown Fur”
Okay, here’s what happened, just don’t ask me how I know this….
It was early morning in the treehouse and the squirrel was just walking around in the dark. Really, she was looking for a peanut butter sandwich, but decided a handful of nuts from the pantry would do just nicely. Not having electricity, though, she had to navigate the treehouse in the dark.
Meanwhile, down on the street below there is this street cat. Streetcat is lonely. No, I mean, lonely, like only an ignored cat can be. Streetcat had just further expressed her loneliness, as she does, by belting out yet another in a series of long languid and desperate expressions of the word, lonely. It sort of sounds like this… Lllll……Oooooooo…n…LLLLLLEEEEEEEEeeeee only more catty and despairing. It’s the sound that drove milkmen out of business with its haunting reminder that they too were alone in the pre-dawn hours and no one cared.
Then Streetcat spots Squirrel making her way from sleeping nest to pantry. Usually, Street cat thinks breakfast when she sees this sight, but not this morning, no sir re Bob, she thinks, loving! That’s right fellow animal behaviourists, she is overcome with a vision for a little warmth and tenderness. As Streetcat is often quoted as saying, “Yes, you can rub your own belly, but it’s not the same.â€
What? Um, yes, cats have much better night vision than squirrels, that’s how the cat sees the squirrel but the squirrel is still in the dark. Look, you were supposed to have taken the prerequisite course in comparative animal perception before you came here. Standards, people!
Where was I? Right, lonely Streetcat seeks warm brown squirell for warmth and affection.
So, you see the issue at hand is interspecies communication and the difficulties presented when Streetcat, whose all Bee Bop and Jive talk and Squirrel whose all very fast-talking and chatty but really is a homebody and doth not spake the lingo of the street, actually have something to say to each other beyond, “You lunch Mama!†And “Eeeck, not me, Felix†Well, as Streetcat says, “Desperation is da’ mudder of invention!†Slinking up the tree, Streetcat approaches by stealth and with a plan.
With Squirrel in comparative total darkness and highly distracted by the urge to read the next copy of Fly-Squirrel about nest cleaning and chestnut preserving, Streetcat makes a bold move! Yes, you guessed it. In the grandest gesture, in days, of interspecies communication Streetcat dives directly into the path of Squirrel and rolls over on her back to suggest, no, demand a belly-rub form Squirrel!
Squirrel is nonplussed, whatever that is, but it can’t be good, because, she can hear Streetcat and as soon as her paw touched the delicate underbelly of the beast, she immediately withdrew her foot and well, yes, even with that amazing tail, she lost her balance and gave her head a really good crack on a close-aboard branch. Squirrel is dazed and confused, oh no, a lot worse than the Led Zeppelin song. Streetcat is freaked, this is not how this was supposed to turn out. Streetcat jumps to her feet, all four of them, and scampers after Squirrel to apologise.
Well, somehow they both end up on the turf and Squirrel in her concussed state heads for a patch of friendly Texas, dry-as-dirt, lawn. Man, she thinks, I really gave the old noggin a good boinking, and not in a good way, this can’t be good for my Final Fantasy scores! When all of a sudden, a foot and I mean one without hair on it, starts poking Squirrel and flipping her over. Yikes, thinks Squirrel, it’s curtains for sure.
Then her vision clears just a bit, and she starts to recognise the human attached to the bare foot. It’s Orb! Yes, Orb, goddess protector of the neighbourhood fauna. Squirrel, remembers the old stories from a couple of rabbits she used to know, whose names always made her hungry. It was going to be okay, if Orb was here.
Squirrel, starts chattering to Orb, asking for her three wishes, as she thinks you are supposed to do in the presence of the goddess. First she asks for a Kraft Crunchy PB&J on toasted whole-wheat with seeds. Then she wants a jar of Pine nuts from Orb’s Kitchen and finally, in a huge stretch, but hey, you don’t get this chance often, Squirrel asks Orb to help her with a Yard Sale to make a few bucks on stuff hanging around the old nest.
Just then, the goddess of small critters reaches down and raises Squirrel into the air. It’s kind of a mystical experience, like move towards the light. Squirrel isn’t sure what the deal is. Either she is going inside the house for the PB&J or it’s curtains after pushing Orb over the edge with the Yard Sale thing, she remembers reading something about that somewhere.
Meanwhile, her little head is pounding and listening to Streetcat do a scat song of apology isn’t helping. “What? Back in the grass? Man, what a day this has been! Orb? What? Goddess, gone. Orb, Orb, why hast thou forsaken me? I smell dogs! This can’t be good.â€
Meanwhile, an unholy alliance has formed across the street. The evil ones have joined forces and are conspiring to extract whatever it is they like to extract. “Pull the curtains of concealment back farther Annoying Boy, says Broom Lady to Annoying Boy, I can’t see everything!†“Oh I would, says Annoying Boy, but it hurts my arm and the dust isn’t good for my allergies and really it’s your turn and. . .â€
Ha!!! That was such a good read. Had me rolling on the floor laughing! Thank you.