squirrel please!

squirrels are wicked-awesome animals. Wicked-Awesome! This time of year is great for squirrels cuz they're FAT. This got me thinking (interesting how fat squirrels are what make a civil engineering graduate student think)... Every one knows that squirrels eat nuts - BUT WHERE ARE ALL THE NUTS! What i mean is, how many nut trees have you seen down town Toronto? So, squirrels have to eat more than just nuts. I know they eat all the crap people feed them, like bagels, and muffins, and oat-fudge-squares from starbucks, but did you know they eat grass? True story, i saw it. A big fat squirrel with a huge tuff of grass in its mouth. I dunno if its that they all eat grass, or just this guy, cuz he was extra fat, perhaps a heifer of the squirrel world. So maybe he just ate anything. He was still cute.

You know what else is cute? when they pat the ground as they burry their nuts (or other morcles of food with i doubt are actually nuts). I also like how they hop around to get from place to place. I want a pet squirrel, but they do make weird angry bird noises.

I had my chance to get a pet squirrel the other day. I saw him (or her) in Queens park. He would hop, hop, hop - then tip over. He never moved more than about a meter and a half, hop hop hop tip over. And i don't mean that he just fell, he actually tipped over, always on the left side, like a cut tree falling. It was sooooooooo funny looking. So of course i went closer to check this dude out. A woman had given him a piece of toast and he was trying to carry it away but wasn't getting far. But even once he tipped over he didn't give up on the bread, so tipped over on his side he would keep chewing at it. He was obviously hurt, but determined. I was able to get about a foot away from him and i just wanted to pick him up and take him home. He woulda bitten me tho. So no go. When i got to close he would make himself get up and he moved over a bit, no tipping over, just sitting and chewing away - but not for long. Just sitting there chewing HE TIPPED OVER AGAIN. I was gunna die laughing. I'm bad, laughing at the poor squirrels expense. I wish i got a video, the best i could do was this picture from my cell phone.

i hope he enjoyed that toast.