Squirrel Success

Squirrels are pests, that’s for sure. But they are also cute, funny, entertaining, and so admirable in their utter persistence.

Everyone, I guess, who puts bird feeders out, has some story about squirrels stealing the seeds. I’ve personally seen them try and try and try again to reach a feeder on a slick post, to jump to a suspended feeder from a tree or window sill, and usually, finally to succeed. But the funniest squirrel success I’ve seen happened several years ago.

The squirrels so diligently sought to get the bird seed when we lived on South Broad, Cairo, that we devised various ways to repel them. Charles nailed the bottom of a barrel to the top of a post outside the living room window. Purple finches and goldfinches came in flocks to that feeder, as well as titmice, chickadees, and cardinals. The squirrels couldn’t climb from the post up around the wide barrel bottom, or at least not for a long while. But finally, one day one squirrel figured out how to stretch himself far enough to pull himself over the edge of the feeder. Of course, when he got home, he told all his brethren about his achievement so they began to come trying their stretching expertise. Soon a skedaddle of squirrels regularly visited the feeder enjoying meals and snacks.

We greased a bird feeder pole, we bought squirrel proof feeders, we tried everything. Then we found the guaranteed squirrel proof bird feeder. It was a circular feeder of clear plastic open on one side, with suction cups to fasten it to a window. We put it on a dining room window where we could enjoy the birds eating while we ate. We could watch the birds up close without their being frightened. It was a delightful feeder. We saw squirrels eying it wistfully. They leaped to the window sill but couldn’t climb the glass. Over and over they tried. We thought we’d finally found the feeder only birds could enjoy.

We were blessed (or cursed) at that house with an abundance of squirrels. Looking out on our front lawn at times, we could see as many as fifteen at one time grazing for their own buried pecans, skittering up the trunks of pine trees, leaping from branch to branch of palm trees. But they could not get to our bird seed. At last the cardinals and mourning doves, chickadees and house wrens had the feeder to themselves.

I laughed one day when I saw a squirrel leap to the window sill and stretch himself up along the glass like a white-bellied over-extended rubber band before falling to the ground. Maybe I was a little bit sorry for him. But, after all, he had other things to eat. He didn’t need those seeds. Then one day I guess he, or a fellow squirrel, was laughing at me.

I walked into the dining room and stopped, staring in disbelief. In that clear bird feeder, curled tightly to make himself fit, was a gray squirrel eating with obvious passion. I didn’t get to see the little acrobat squeeze himself into that bird feeder but, once there, he ate in utter safety while I found my camera and took his picture.

Now, years later, as I turned pages of a photo album, I came upon that faded old picture. What an example of persistence, patience, and perseverance that squirrel was! If only I had even half his perseverance in reaching for goals–losing weight, finishing a difficult project, or praying for a God-sized problem to be solved.

That squirrel told the news to the squirrel community and our safe, squirrel proof feeder was open to all. It was comical the day the feeder’s suction cups turned loose and the whole thing, squirrel and all, went tumbling down. But that squirrel’s lesson was not lost on me. He didn’t keep his wonderful discovery to himself but told all his family and neighbors how to get to the seeds and to be regulars at the “table” until the day it fell.

He was a successful squirrel–persistent, patient, never giving up, and telling the good news.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9