Baby Squirrels

DAY 61. Aerobatics!
Saturday, 14 September 2002

Rock enjoys taking a morning walk out to the end of his palm leaf. He is the most adventurous of the three squirrels. Sometimes he walks as far as the rose bush and tomato plants, and nibbles on leaves and blossoms. He lounges in the sun on his private pedestal.

Scissors sometimes follows him partway out, or lounges on the palm leaf -- but he always remains a few inches away from the entrance to the cage. Rock doesn't like to see Scissors on his palm leaf, and will bully him, so Scissors stays close to the safety of the cage.

Paper hardly comes out of the house anymore. She is skittish around boisterous playing. She is likely to run inside when the others tumble and fight. However she has fun inside the box! She climbs upside down on the roof, and burrows in the bedding, and nibbles on food she has stowed under the blankets.

Today Rock's aggression led to an aerobatic incident!

Scissors followed Rock out on the palm leaf, and Rock came barrelling down the leaf and drove him back into the cage. Rock chattered his teeth, an alarming sound that means he doesn't like what's going on! He patrolled the door to the cage for several minutes, chattering, to make sure Scissors didn't come back out. Then he walked away down his private highway.

So Scissors decided to climb to the ground and explore THAT WAY, since Rock was being territorial about the palm leaf. He crept cautiously to the edge of the grass and gnawed on tomato leaves and weeds.

I walked to the end of the palm leaf to distract Rock. He jumped on my arm, and jumped off again. Suddenly Scissors bolted up the screen at a rapid rate, making the strange "shoop shoop shoop" noise of squirrel claws on the screen, surprising us both!

Rock flew down the palm leaf and the rodents intersected! They appeared to bounce off each other, and Scissors rocketed up the screen and flew into the air, soared overhead, and landed in the tomato patch! Rock bolted into the cage and cowered in the deepest corner of the nest, trembling in alarm!

I couldn't see Scissors in the tomatoes, he was holding so still. But after a few quiet minutes had passed, the tomato leaves rustled, and he crept back under the cage, climbed up the side, and dove into the nest.

All three have been hiding there ever since. What a fright!

I don't know what gender each squirrel really is. Rock is very aggressive and Scissors, although small, holds his own with Rock, so I think they might be male. Paper is easily frightened by the other two, and I think she may be female. Jacob's alternate explanation is that Rock and Paper are male and can't share a territory, but Scissors is female and gets along with both males.

They are difficult to tell apart. Rock is big, Scissors is small,
and Paper is in the middle, with a twisted toe.