winter is over

Despite the fact that it snowed here on Sunday (which I was not happy about, btw), I am now sure that Winter is officially over. My squirrel friend Griswold is back.

It's been months since we'd seen her. Sure, there were other squirrels that came sniffing around for handouts, but these were boy squirrels. Also: they were jerks. They would climb on our patio furniture and even up the screen door like they had some sort of grandiose sense of entitlement. We were so sure that these mean old boys (aptly named Stubby, Stubby 2, Tiny, and Blackie, among others) had chased our friend away. We were sad and mad. They never got any peanuts from us.

But last night Gris came back. Jay had been temporarily kidnapped by one of the neighbors to fix something or other, and a squirrel came to the door (the glass was open but the screen was closed). What drew my attention was that this squirrel was looking inside, but waiting patiently - NOT climbing on things and being a jerk. Then I noticed Mecrutio was at his guard post, ready to eat whatever critters got close enough. This squirrel wasn't intimidated by the cat. A car drove by and the squirrel darted away. "Gris?" I called out timidly. And she stuck her head back around the corner. Say what you will, but this squirrel knows her name (or at least the sound of my or Jay's voice). "Gris?" I asked again. She crept a little closer.

I darted up to get the peanuts. The sudden movement spooked her a little bit, but she didn't run away. I came back to the door and snuck a peek at her underbelly. This was definitely not a boy squirrel. I was so excited. I tossed out a few peanuts (after moving the cat out of the way), and Gris came up and ate them. Now for the final test - if this really was my friend Gris, she would eat peanuts out of my hand no problem. I fed her a whole handful this way. It was definitely Griswold.

Here's a picture of me feeding Gris. It's not from last night, but the effect is the same (except I'm wearing a different color of sparkly nail polish):


Yay for springtime!