Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Facepalm (05/15/14)
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TITLE: Of Creatures and Men | Previous Challenge Entry
By Steve McClure
05/20/14 -
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God’s little creatures can sometimes be irritating. We can’t really blame them. For all the animal knew, the young woman had spent the day laying out a fine feast. Wasn’t that nice. But despite their sometimes exasperating traits, animals do have their finer points. After all, God put them here for us to enjoy.
I recall sitting in the bright sun one cool spring morning when I caught sight of a shallow furrow making its way through the yet-to-be-cut green grass. As the furrow meandered closer, emitting a slight rustle from the parting grass-blades, the source of this unusual sight came into view – a baby bunny, hardly weeks old. He furrowed right up to my chair and plopped back, staring at me as much as I was at him. His little body huffed and puffed from his long run, tiny nose flicking up and down, and long little ears poking up from a ball of brown fuzz. He didn’t stay long, but the visit was pleasant.
The trouble with bunnies is they grow up to be rabbits. Rabbits like fresh greenery…like pansies. Cute little kittens and puppies grow up to be cats and dogs, both of which shed everywhere and require cleaning-up after. Some animals can be naturally destructive – squirrels, for example. Squirrels have this God-given talent for finding and burying acorns for the winter. But they forget where they buried them and spend the spring and summer digging up the yard in their search. Yet, even squirrels have their lighter side.
I once knew a squirrel (not really, but it sure seemed like it) whose tenacity was overbearing. I keep a birdfeeder out. Squirrels like birdseed. I first placed the feeder on a thin, metal pole in the yard. This particular squirrel simply climbed the pole. I sprayed silicon on the pole. The squirrel managed to climb up to the feeder, but then involuntarily slid back down the pole (the look on that squirrel’s face…). Mission accomplished. Then, the squirrel learned to climb faster and immediately grab the feeder before he slid away. Foiled again.
The encounter became a summer challenge. I bought a feeder with a cage around it. This squirrel’s head was small enough that he could squeeze it into the cage. I hung the feeder from a tree limb on a very fine wire. The squirrel simply slid down the wire. I placed a rounded cover atop the feeder. The squirrel held onto the wire with a hind foot while he reached under the cover and grabbed the cage with his front feet. I was losing. I loosened the cover allowing it to wobble freely above the feeder, so the squirrel had no platform from which to maneuver. Birdseed expenditure receded to norms. Success at last. Before long, however, the birdseed again began to disappear quickly. My wife reported seeing the squirrel on the cage. How could this be?
I had to see for myself. I filled the feeder and planted myself in front of the kitchen window, having full view of the feeder and its surroundings. Soon, the squirrel approached through the trees. He jumped to the tree at hand, raced down to the targeted limb, ran atop the branch to the attachment point, and slid head-long down the wire, slamming his front feet into the cover. As the force pushed the loose cover down and away, the squirrel released the wire, falling head-long toward the ground, then quickly reached out a front paw and grabbed the cage. I wondered how many times he had crashed to the ground before mastering this technique.
You could say I was dismayed. But I had to applaud the ingenuity. I let the squirrel have at the seed for the rest of the season (not that I could stop him).
That was some 25 years ago. Today, we have “squirrel proof” feeders. I bought one. I could tell you another story….
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Hahaha!
God bless~
Great job! Thanks for sharing. :