THE SQUIRREL

Last year I sponsored a squirrel. I used to look at him running and jumping on the old elm tree and I decided that I wanted to know him better. He comes several times a day on my windowsill expecting to find roasted peanuts−this is what I’ve been feeding him on everyday for the last three months. I don’t know if peanuts are good for him. I am not an expert on squirrel and I haven’t read any books on these lovely rodents (maybe I should, I don’t want to kill him) but I know quite a lot about mine.

Contrarily to what many people might think (or was it just me?) he doesn’t burry his nuts in the ground (my flower pots), that is a complete misconception of all times. My squirrel eats them on the spot−the windowsill−while standing next to my jasmine, which thanks to the fucked up environment blossomed just before Christmas and is in bloom still, or he disappears under a bush, which grows next to the roof. When he has enough of roasted peanuts he leaves them where they are and comes back to finish them off later. That is a clever squirrel.

After three months of feeding I can now open the window without him running away. He keeps at a safe distance, looking at me sideways, waiting for the nuts, and as soon as I lay them down he comes and takes them.

I usually give him three peanuts in their shell a day and an extra one over the weekend. On a few occasion I’ve fed him twice in a day, for a total number of 6 to 8 nuts. I don’t know if that amount in squirrel land is considered obesity and I have no way of knowing it except if, one day, I see him falling off the tree while jumping from a brunch. It’s still early days. He seems to enjoy them. He bites into the shell, but I can’t tell if he eats it with the nut or spits it out. I think I should get something else for him, maybe he would like some Brazil nuts but they are terribly expensive so peanuts will do for the moment.

My squirrel is a rare mixed-race breed, which makes him the perfect squirrel for London town. He is grey with a

red face and tail. Him and his parents live a happy life and so far have missed Squirrel World War I and II, completely unaware that red squirrels and grey squirrels hate each other and are fighting for territory and land.