speaking the truth

[ Loiosh, an orange tabby wearing a green harness. is seen from behind, in his stroller. He’s staring forward, along the paved path ahead. The background is a park, with low grass and a few trees. ]

I took the boy to the park, as you do.

The squirrels were … imprudent.

[ The camera has moved right and angled left, such that the view shows more of the left side of the path. Both camera and Loiosh are focused on a squirrel, who is happily hop-hopping down the left side of the path, paying no attention to the cat staring at them. ]

THIS small child is VERY BRAVE, & I hope that they do not get EATEN.

[ A slightly blurry, rather close view of the squirrel in question. The blurriness is due to zoom, not motion; the squirrel is standing still, tail upright with a curl at the end, one forepaw raised up, ears slightly tilted to the sides. There’s a scar across their nose, which ought to have taught them something. ]

Were they cautious? Sure. Would that have done them the tiniest bit of good if that had been Major Tom in the stroller? NOPE.

(Me, I just wanted to make friends. I’m terribly fond of squirrels.)

[ Less blurry, this time; the squirrel is closer to the camera, or at least the camera is closer to the squirrel. They’re facing the camera pretty directly, all four paws on the ground now, but ears perked firmly forward. Their tail is tilted a bit off to the left but otherwise still up. ]

SO CURIOUS. I mean, mostly about whether I had a snack for them. Which I did not. But it’s true, you never know, & that many squirrels in a park that size do very much depend on handouts from humans.

Upon no treats being forthcoming, they decided to bugger off. But they buggered off very slowly, just in case.

[ The squirrel is now facing to the right. up on their hind legs now, forepaws neatly curled, tail still up, with a curl at the tip. They’re poised and ready to poing poing off. ]

You never know who might suddenly produce a handful of peanuts!

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

[ Atop a wooden post sits a grey squirrel holding a chunk of bread crust in their front paws. Their tail is curled up and lays along their spine, and their ears are perked slightly forward. The post is maybe three feet high & the squirrel is sitting maybe four feet from the camera. In the background is a city park, green grass with a line of trees curving in from the right side of the shot. ]

This lil dude* let me get SO CLOSE.

I’ve always been extremely fond of squirrels — apart from that one time they got tired of eating the birdseed & started chewing up the bird feeder, I’m still cranky about that — & I had a squirrel friend for a while once, so when I run across one who’s braver than usual, I’m always pretty pleased.

This one? SO BRAVE.

[ Even closer — the camera’s got to be within arm’s reach. The squirrel has sat up slightly, and their left ear has swiveled a bit to point towards the camera, but they’re still happily nibbling at the bread. ]

I was moving as slowly & smoothly as I could, which is still pretty smoothly unless I get a muscle spasm or something, camera held out but not too far. I just wanted to see how close I could get without scaring them. Which was. REALLY close.

[ The squirrel has looked up, though they’re still holding up the bread. I think this is about when they stopped chewing, though. ]

I figured I’d stop as soon as they froze, or otherwise indicated they were getting uncomfortable, but I must have missed the signs, cos they went from ‘looks pretty happy’ to ‘vigorously buggering off’ without much indication that I could make out. No surprise — I don’t know squirrel language NEAR as well as cat language. I do feel bad about actually scaring them off, though. I’ll hafta go sit in the park & just watch them for a while, I guess.

Anyway they took their bread with them, so at least they didn’t miss their lunch!

* no, I don’t know this squirrel’s sex OR gender; I felt that inquiring about either would be rude without a formal introduction

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!