That's cute. Our squirrels exhibit all kinds of interesting behavior. I had a plant hanging from one tree that died. One of them climbed the branch it was ganing from and jumped into the empty pot. He sat there until it quit swinging and once it did, he put his little "hands" on the rim and started to push the side until it started rocking again. Once he got it going, he stopped until it stopped again. He did this for about 10 minutes.

One of ours' favorite pastimes is finding a stick and "wrestling" with it. They'll grab the stick or twig and tumble around on the ground with it. It usually ends up being tossed away then pounced on again.

We have several dens in our backyard and we feed them(Along with some neigboring squirrels) everyday. When it snows more than 4 or 5 inches they become little sissies about going through the snow, so I clear a path next from our big oak to a small ornamental, "the feeding tree". They jump from one tree to the next to the next to get to the oak tree, to follow the path to the feeding tree. Once there get to be too many in the small tree for comfort they'll brave the snow to eat in peace.

As much as anything, I get a kick out of watching them burying peanuts or acorns. How they have to find that *perfect* spot. Not here, not here, not here...Ahhh. Just right. Then they dig, drop the sucker in and scrape the dirt back over it and pat it down, adding a leaf or two on top for good measure if they're handy. Sometimes they bury them in the snow if it's deep. One spent an entire afternoon sticking his head down in the snow, putting a nut in and pushing the snow back over it. Sometimes they'll get up on our deck and bury them in the snow there.

One actually tunnelled in some deep snow a couple of years back when we had about 10 inches over a couple of days. He would plunge down in the snow and pop up a few feet away.

We have one that comes around every afternoon around 4-5 PM like clockwork. He comes up the driveway to the garage and will come inside to get a peanut to bury. If I'm in the garage, he comes up to the opening then stands ups and looks at me until I give him one. He usually will take it and go off and bury it someplace before coming back maybe 5 minutes later for more. This little dance usually goes on anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. I play a little game with him where I'll toss him one and after he starts to scoot down the driveway, I'll say "Hey", and he'll stop and look back. I throw him another peanut and he'll stuff it in his jaw with the other and take off. One time I had left about 6 or 7 peanuts at the top of the driveway on the side he usually comes in. This time, he came from the other side of the driveway, inside the garage then stood up and looked at me, completely disregarding the peanuts on the ground only a couple of feet away. I guess if I'm out there, they expect delivery.

One of my all time favorite squirrel episodes was a couple of years ago in the winter. We had one squirrel den, occupied by a couple. One afternoon I heard really a loud chattering noise like they make when a predator is around. That loud CH-CH-CH-ch-ch-ch-chchchchchchchchchchch sound. I went outside to look, and it turned out to be one (I assume the female :-) ) chattering at the other, almost as though it was scolding it. The one that was being chattered at just sat there placidly before moving to another limb. The other followed, sat by it and started chattering again. After a few minutes, the verbal abusee moved on to another tree, only to be quickly followed by the verbal abuser for another bout of chiding. This went on for about 45 minutes and covered 4 of the 5 trees in our yard.

I know some people hate them but I've gotten a real kick out of watching them over the years.

I have this half-breed squirrel who is totally beautiful. His back is dark and grey, and his belly and undertail is a lovely red. He/she comes and robs my feeders and drives my little dog crazy. However, I think he/she is so beautiful and extra smart and bigger than most squirrels in this area.

While it annoys me that they steal food from the birds, I still think these rodents are fun to watch. Pondy