With all of the Fourth of July celebrations cancelled at the
Woodpile, I was looking forward to a quiet and relaxing holiday weekend. On the
morning of the fourth, the temperature was cool, so I opted to take a leisurely
stroll. The birds were chattering away, lots of flowers were in bloom, it was a
perfect morning.
I discovered an empty energy drink bottle in the grass. I
was cursing the irresponsible human who carelessly discarded it rather
than recycling the bottle, when I was nearly knocked off my paws by five delinquent
teenage squirrels tearing through the Woodpile at breakneck speeds. I took a
closer look at the bottle and saw some muddy squirrel prints on it. Typical
teenagers, they didn’t bother to wash their paws. As I was examining the
bottle, I could hear logs from Woodpile flying everywhere. The noise abated and
then a deadly silence settled over the Woodpile. I turned around and saw five
sets of eyes staring at me. This couldn’t be good. I started to slowly back
away … One of the squirrels yelled “First squirrel to catch the chipmunk is the
winner!” … and the chase was on!
“The Leader of the Pack”
All those tree climbing lesson my parents made me take
as a young’munk have finally paid off.
(The top arrow indicates my location and the bottom arrow is the squirrel.)
I found safety on a narrow rotted branch.
The energy drink made the squirrel’s paws jittery. The
leader climbed a couple feet up the tree trunk but was unsure of himself. Rather
than admit he felt unsafe climbing higher, he challenged his buddies to climb
up instead. No one took up the challenge.
In fact one of the squirrels decided that chipmunk
chasing wasn’t a great career path. He decided he wanted to become an environmental
activist. He took up tree hugging!
After my narrow escape I celebrated with a few fireworks I
had tucked away for a special occasion.
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