The Rodent Robber

Squirrels are rodents and I'm a rodent

There are a lot of squirrels around my house. They are everywhere, actually. It’s so neat the way they can climb trees and walk on fences and jump from branch to branch. They’re much more agile than capybaras. On the other paw, they can’t swim so I don’t think I’d like to switch places with them even for a day.

Fluffy is checking my bed for predators

There is one squirrel who hangs around my front porch a lot. I call her Fluffy because she has a fluffy tail although, to be honest, it isn’t any fluffier than the tails of other squirrels.

Fluffy’s life is much harder than mine. She has to constantly watch for predators because she is so small. Now that Stripe has taken to hanging out with us, it’s even more dangerous. Fluffy also has to find her own food and enough food for her little family. She has at least one teenager squirrel offspring living up in the attic. (Don’t tell Melly that, humans don’t think squirrels should live in their attics.)

I don’t exactly feel sorry for Fluffy because she’s a strong, resourceful animal, as are all rodents, but I do what I can. You can call me a socialist if you want, but I think those that have should share with those that have not. So when Fluffy came up while I was eating my corn-on-the-cob I was as sweet and accommodating as can be.

Share and share alike?

If you watched the video above, you know how that worked out. Turns out Fluffy is a robber rodent! And she’s a rodent robber! I thought that when Melly brought the corn back to me after she took it that she would understand that we were supposed to share but that wasn’t her idea at all! The second time she ran faster and got into the trees before Melly could make her drop my corn.

Fluffy jumping into the tree carrying my corn!

I was pretty impressed by how she could climb carrying that big corn cob but I still wasn’t happy about it.

Is that corn good? Huh?

Then she sat there having a feast while I waited below.

Hey! That's my corn you have up there!

I was going to say “while I starved below” but actually, I was kind of full already. Still, it wasn’t very nice of her. I don’t think I can forgive such bad behavior. This is something that Linda Lombardi should have put in her book, Animals Behaving Badly! I guess it’s too late for that but maybe Fluffy will make it into the next edition.