Last November a very fat squirrel walked right up to me at my front door, absolutely intent and unafraid. I started feeding him regularly, he was the fattest squirrel I'd ever seen. We named him Buddy. I didn't like leaving him over the Holidays. But when we returned there he was, daily, usually around 11 am, on his fence, and daily we fed him walnuts, raisins, stale peanuts.., almonds, organic Turkish apricots! By now he had his own jar on the kitchen shelf. Then he disappeared for a couple weeks. And when he showed up again he was much skinnier. It took seeing another squirrel next to Buddy for us to realize that Buddy was not a boy! So we renamed her "Booty". And then it took our smart neighbor to suggest she probably had babies, for us to put it together; that's why Booty who used to be Buddy used to be so fat! In these pictures, I spent the morning working on a chart, and Booty spent it on the fence, eating or patiently waiting for more food. There's a special noise I make to call her and she runs over the roof to her fence. We feed her there or she climbs down her post and stands under our window. Sometimes if we've left the front door open and we forget she's there, she comes to find us in the house. Knowing she has babies out there I feed her as long as she sticks around.
