We have sort of acquired a squirrel, going by the name Charlie. Carrie and our friend Michael Colero found him on Queen Street West in Toronto, milling around on the sidewalk and running into traffic. He even ran into a store along there a couple of times. He seemed quite unafraid of people, apparently, and very young – perhaps just weaned and “encouraged” into the world. He was immediately named after Michael’s father and was so nonchalant about humans so as to be captured into a box without too much difficulty. He may be a little daft, and he’s certainly lazy – rising only when you bellow out his name from below “his” tree or when the mood suits him.

He was then transported from Queen Street West out to our place in Newcastle, where we kept him in an outdoor cage for a week while we built him a condo to live in and pondered how to introduce him into the wild. After a week he was going pretty, well, squirrelly, and we felt obliged to speed up our deliberations (read: get my keester going and finish his abode). I finished what needed to be done and we put the condo in Charlie’s outdoor cage for a day. Much to our delight, he took to it and we saw him poking his nose out of the little door next morning. Stuffing a rag in the “door” to keep him inside, I carefully lifted his new home into the crook of a red maple near the house and bound it to the tree with twine. When ready, with two photographers on the ground below me (Carrie and Kathleen), I pulled the rag and after a heartbeat, poor Charlie shot out of his home like a rocket. Finding no branch below him as he flew out, he plummeted to the grass and bolted right back for the tree. One of the photos below is from between my legs as he negotiates how to get higher with a human in the way.

And so he returned to his new home after awhile exploring his new tree, and has claimed it ever since – including an interruption by local yokel country squirrels who chased him round and round the tree trunk at least one time that I saw.  It seems that Finn may very well be the only one he trusts enough to come close to on a regular basis for treats such as banana.  Carrie has fed him by hand, as has Owen, but it is Finn who has approached him more times than any and he seems to be getting quite used to her.  There’s a wonderful child’s story in here somewhere replete with whimsical watercolour illustrations…

Here he is, out at our place:

Charlie’s condo.

Carrie checking on Charlie.

Charlie’s preferred method of settin’.

Finn tempts him with a dandelion, but he was not so interested that day.

Charlie accepts bananas as tokens of admiration and will sniff your fingers for more, if he can get away with it..