Okbloggers, this is an experience I had recently and when I emailed my lovely wife about it she felt it was blog worthy, so here goes. I realize that it seems unbelievable, but it did happen and I take it as a good sign that I'm ready to be a parent.
I was running down the dirt path in High Park when I passed a baby squirrel. I stopped because instead of running off into the bush, the squirrel was running toward me. This seemed really weird. So then the infant squirrel climbed onto my shoe, and naturally I shook him off and was kind of freaked out by it. Then my persistent little friend climbed right back up onto my shoe. At this point I thought, "how much damage could this furry little guy do?", so I decided to see how far he would go.
He proceeded to climb up my leg, across my body, and onto my forearm where he perched staring at my face...as if to say "are you my mother?". I put him down on the ground and he climbed up again. I ended up putting him on a tree branch (to protect him from ground dwelling creatures) and had to literally run away from him to prevent having him follow me. I spent the rest of the run feeling guilty, and wondering if my baby squirrel would make it to healthy squirrel adulthood. All in all it was a very strange but cool experience.
Only now am I remembering that rabies in fact makes animals uncommonly friendly. Oh well, he seemed healthy...and my little buddy would never have bitten me.
I think my parental instincts are kicking in and even the forest creatures can sense it.
I was running down the dirt path in High Park when I passed a baby squirrel. I stopped because instead of running off into the bush, the squirrel was running toward me. This seemed really weird. So then the infant squirrel climbed onto my shoe, and naturally I shook him off and was kind of freaked out by it. Then my persistent little friend climbed right back up onto my shoe. At this point I thought, "how much damage could this furry little guy do?", so I decided to see how far he would go.
He proceeded to climb up my leg, across my body, and onto my forearm where he perched staring at my face...as if to say "are you my mother?". I put him down on the ground and he climbed up again. I ended up putting him on a tree branch (to protect him from ground dwelling creatures) and had to literally run away from him to prevent having him follow me. I spent the rest of the run feeling guilty, and wondering if my baby squirrel would make it to healthy squirrel adulthood. All in all it was a very strange but cool experience.
Only now am I remembering that rabies in fact makes animals uncommonly friendly. Oh well, he seemed healthy...and my little buddy would never have bitten me.
I think my parental instincts are kicking in and even the forest creatures can sense it.