Today I made friends with a squirrel. This primarily means that he followed me around the yard while I was weeding the garden, occasionally doing helpful things like knocking over the watering can (it was empty) and sniffing my weeds to double-check that I hadn't pulled up anything tasty (I hadn't). (Squirrels don't think carrots are tasty, by the way. I pulled some up to munch on and he wasn't interested in sharing...which is fine by me, because I worried about him getting a taste for them and trying to help himself to more when I wasn't around.)
Sometimes he would sit on the fence while I was weeding, and I would come over and stand next to him. After awhile I put my arm out to him to see what he'd do, and he climbed on it! We were both kind of unsure of this squirrel-on-the-arm thing, and when he started gripping my arm to climb down it his little toenails HURT, so I jumped and he jumped and then we went back to watching each other from a foot or two away.
It's nice to have company when you're gardening.
This reminds me of the time that a squirrel and I ate french fries together. He saw me sitting on a bench and trotted up to the bench. I would hold out a fry and he would eat it. Then I would eat a fry while he waited patiently. Then I gave him another. He had a lot of french fries that day.
