"squirrels are like cats"

[asakiyume]

I was at an event last week, a breakfast event, and I was sitting at a table with people I didn't know, but we were all making conversation, and somehow the talk turned to animal visitors, and one woman started talking about how a squirrel had been paying them visits over the summer:

I left the window open, and there's no screen, but I didn't worry about anything getting in because we're on the second floor. But I had a bowl of nuts on the kitchen table, and it kept on going down. I kept on refilling it--I thought my husband was eating the nuts. But it was a squirrel. A squirrel was coming in and eating the nuts! But you know, squirrels are like cats. If they like you, they'll leave you something, as a present. Better than a cat's present! Well I guess the squirrel liked us, because one day I came into the kitchen and there was a doughnut on the table.

"Is this your doughnut?" I asked my husband.

"No, it's not mine. I thought it was your doughnut."

"If it was my doughnut, do you think it would be sitting here, uneaten?"

It was the squirrel. It had had so many of our nuts, it decided to leave us a doughnut.

Now maybe the squirrel just happened to be carrying a doughnut it had pilfered from somewhere else, and it set it down to much on some more of this woman's nuts and then scampered off in a panic, forgetting its doughnut. But I really like the woman's interpretation of the events.

Comments

[queenoftheskies]

That's a great story. I really want to believe!

[asakiyume]

I definitely believe the squirrel left it there, and I *want* to believe it was as a gift :-)

[sovay]

But you know, squirrels are like cats. If they like you, they'll leave you something, as a present. Better than a cat's present!

I like that!

[asakiyume]

I mean, I am grateful to cats for sharing the prizes of their hunts.... it's just that small, dead, furred things are not the best treat.

[amaebi]

...but consider the tiny, dead star-nosed mole on the doorstep, tiny frozen paws uplifted--

well, probably still not the very best treat.

[asakiyume]

Yeah--but I know what you mean. And as a kid I kind of loved finding dead animals, because it let me look at them more closely. (... Sometimes as an adult I still do, if they're animals I otherwise could never see up close. Once last year I found a dead weasel)

[amaebi]

I think, to speak indelicately, that the state of decomposition has a lot to do with how one fells about encountering the deceased. And I say that despite my profound admiration and affection for decay and its many agents....

[asakiyume]

YES. absolutely

[minoanmiss]

*beams at her and at you*

[asakiyume]

Beaming right back at you!

[rimturse]

LOL. That's a great story!

[amaebi]

I like that whole story-- thank you!

But before I actually read your entry my eyes glanced down to see that a doughnut had appeared, and I thought of a sullen haunted doughnut stalking people.

[asakiyume]

That latter idea would make a good humor-horror movie; I like it!

[pameladean]

There's a bit in Shirley Jackson's Life Among the Savages in which she and her husband are trying to find a house to buy in a small New England town (the one that eventually inspired "The Lottery"), and in one house's kitchen there are the long-petrified remains of somebody's breakfast, including two doughnuts. The doughnuts are not described except as "petrified" and "hideous" but they are evoked terrifyingly. The house is struck off the list, of course. In a mostly comical set of anecdotes, this one is really scary. Haunted doughnuts, for sure.

As for the squirrel, squirrels are extremely smart about food and the squirrel probably knew what it was doing.

P.

[asakiyume]

Marvelous! Clearly both amaebi and Shirley Jackson understand the hidden menace that lurks in doughnuts... perhaps it's that their centers are empty.

And yes, the squirrel may have seized the opportunity to rid itself of a cursed doughnut. Or he knew the golden rule of fairy tales, which is to reward those who help you out.

[amaebi]

I love you So Much. :)

[asakiyume]

If I were a cartppm character, a href="https://i.gifer.com/1w2.mp4">I'd be all red right now :-)

[cmcmck]

Awwww! :o)

[asakiyume]

^_^

[e_d_young]

I've never heard that before about squirrels. How cute if it's true!

[asakiyume]

Right? The skeptic in me says it was probably a one-off thing, but it would be marvelous if it were squirrel policy!

[pjthompson]

Crows have been known to leave "treasures" for people they like, too. The ungrateful bastards I feed have never left anything for me, but I keep on the lookout. :-D

[asakiyume]

Your crows may have an entitlement complex ;-)

[pjthompson]

They SO do!

[amaebi]

Yes, that's crows for you.

[osprey_archer]

I've heard of crows doing this, but - squirrels! That's great. And a doughnut is a big burden for a squirrel, too.

[asakiyume]

And a doughnut is a big burden for a squirrel, too. --Like humans, they definitely have an eyes-are-bigger-than-the-stomach tendency!

[zyzyly]

Haha that is such a wonderful story!

[asakiyume]

Hee, I thought so too--and have been sharing it liberally!

[umadoshi]

It was the squirrel. It had had so many of our nuts, it decided to leave us a doughnut.

This is clearly the best and only possible explanation.

[asakiyume]

Let us not cast aspersions on squirrels' generosity by suggesting otherwise!

[umadoshi]

Let us not cast aspersions on squirrels' generosity by suggesting otherwise!

It would seem to invite ill fortune to do so.

[gale_storm]

Oh, what a great story! That brings to mind my squirrel fishing at university. I'd taken a long piece of twine and tied a peanut at one end, then lowered it down from the fifth or sixth floor, waited for the squirrel to grab it, and then hoisted it up. Don't remember when it let go, though.

[asakiyume]

Fishing for squirrels! And you actually caught some--that's hilarious.

[tolcath]

That is really amusing. I never heard of squirrels doing anything like that. :)

[asakiyume]

I never have either, so possibly this was a very unusual squirrel!