The Thank You Bone

Everyone who knows us will attest to the fact that we have the occasional squirrel visit our attic for some winter warmth. When we first moved in, we thought the scamping around in the roof above might be  a ghost, but that was until a baby squirrel was spotted sitting on my nightstand, as I was about to shut out the bedside light, made it's presence known. He sat upright and then jumped on the bed as if to say, "Hi, here I am!" Startled, I yelled "EEEKK", and the poor little thing flew off the bed, headed down the hall, and jumped into the toilet. We had a heck of a time corralling the little culprit, but unfortunately the damage was done...I scared the bejesus out him. For years we did our best to squirrel proof the house, but this summer everything changed. My husband Gerry and I were sitting on the front porch listening to music, when I spotted a skinny little squirrel with a crooked tail sitting by the tree. She must have gotten a pork chop bone from the dog bowl that I keep in the backyard for the various table scraps, and leftovers, that my woodland friends (raccoons, opossums, and foxes) enjoy. The bone was slightly curved and to our surprise Mrs. Personality (as she was later named) started playing the bone like a banjo! We started laughing, an before we could stop, she took the bone in her two little hands and started blowing it like a trumpet. OMG... it was the funniest sight to see, but wait... as we laughed and giggled, that lil bit of a squirrel took the bone, put it between her hind legs and started doing what can only be described here as a "lap dance". We were overcome with laughter, and wished we had caught it on video, as it would have been a million hit clip. Since that time, when Mrs. Personality comes scamping about, she is rewarded with potato chips, nuts or crackers. I often leave them for her on a chest that holds our garden tools on the back porch. I know it's her, as she has a distinctively crooked tail. She has no fear of me, and will sit with her unblinking eyes, staring at me as she takes a cracker, (which is like a human holding a dinner plate), and rotate it as she chips off the edges... it just cracks me up!

Well, the other day as I went to tidy up the spare room that sits directly below the attic where the squirrels scamper above,  I found that an odd artifact had made its way from the attic through the rustic beams of the ceiling. As I picked it up off the floor, it occurred to me that it was a remnant of a pork chop bone... about the same size as the one that Mrs. Personality played with this summer. It is now a sacred keepsake, as I do believe with the onset of a cold winter, that she is thanking me and Gerry for her cozy winter quarters, with a keepsake of her summertime performance.