The other day I was walking down the street, and I saw a partially-carved pumpkin someone had left by the side of the pavement and a squirrel looking with great excitement into it. He looked a lot like this.
I was so delighted by him that I painted two other squirrel watercolors. These are just inspired by my imagination:
What funny things have you seen squirrels doing?
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Published by shellypruittjohnson
My name is Shelly Johnson, and I am a writer and philosopher with a Ph.D. in philosophy. One of my primary personal and philosophical interests is how we can learn to love ourselves and each other better in order to cultivate personal and political resilience. I teach ethics and a variety of other courses at a local college. I am the author of the blog Love is Stronger. I am also the author of three logic and critical thinking books for high school and middle school: _Argument Builder_, _Discovery of Deduction_ (co-author), and _Everyday Debate_, published by Classical Academic Press. You can reach me at shellypruittjohnson@gmail.com.
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I’ve seen a squirrel playing in just the same excited way that my cats do – complete with a thoroughly entertaining session of the ‘zoomies’. Squirrels can be great fun! 🙂
They are so much fun! And you are right. They do play like cats sometimes–at least they play like my cats do :).
Aren’t these the cutest! Oh my goodness, brought a badly needed smile to my face. I like the way squirrels chatter at me when I walk under their trees 🙂
I am so glad they brought a smile to your face, M.B. I had so much fun drawing and painting them. Squirrels definitely are chatty! The other day I passed by one chattering me in a tree. I had always thought that sound was bird call, but it turns out it is squirrels!
We have a squirrel in our garden who doesn’t have a tail any more. I do wonder that happened to it! We used to have a white (Albino) squirrel. A dark bit of humour for you, now. I noticed a while ago that with roadkill, the identifying feature of the animal is often not squashed. It is like the animal is leaving a flag to identify itself. So a squirrel will be flattened except for its tail. A pheasant will have one wing lifting in the breeze. And once I saw a pair of rabbit ears. Just the ears, standing proud.
Oh my! I have noticed this about squirrel road kill, too, Ali. That albino squirrel sounds lovely. It is also cool that the squirrel in your garden has a distinguishing feature so that you can notice it visiting you all regularly. I have not been able to notice any distinguishing marks on our squirrels yet.
Full disclosure: I’m afraid of squirrels… their nervous energy freaks me out… but I love the calm little guys in your drawings- tsk
I can definitely sympathize with this, Tony. Squirrels occasionally freak me out, too. I sometimes feel like they are going to run up my leg and torso and get stuck in my hair :).
Lovely paintings Shelly! I enjoy watching squirrels chasing each other and nibbling on their food 🙂
Thank you so much, P! I saw some squirrels chasing each other the other day, and it made me laugh a lot.