The park abounds in squashberries in season, by the way, and it is my suspicion that people around here are not aware of its specialty, as we certainly realize on Fogo Island. Next fall I’m going to pick as many as I want and make tons of jelly. Perhaps I should not be writing this because if my old friend Hayward Cull in Shoal Bay reads this, he’ll be up here and have them picked before I get a chance. He does that to me on Fogo Island.
There is some wildlife in the park, but mainly birds. But there is one squirrel that seems to be the only one living on this several-acre piece of land. I just know that he expects Pixie and me at our usual time in the morning, and I suspect it’s Pixie, not me.
This squirrel which I have named Pete, is totally black; as black as your boot, my mother would say. Every morning without fail he (perhaps ‘she’) is in the same spot, more or less, and, I’m thinking, pretending to be munching on something. What I think is that he’s playing a game with Pixie. When Pixie sees him and is around 20 or so feet away, she crouches, making motions, I think, to me to keep quiet, and she starts approaching slowly, something like a cat, to catch it, I can only suppose. What she would do with it, I have not the slightest idea.
Meanwhile, I strongly suspect that Pete is just playing a game. He lets Pixie get within a few feet, and then he rushes off and climbs a nearby tree. Pixie, of course, pursues, but the outcome is always the same. The squirrel from his perch in the tree makes all manner of fun at Pixie who (relative pronoun deliberate) hurls back all kinds of curse words, as only a dog can, at the squirrel. Then we finish our walk. Mission accomplished.
But this week we had an unusual experience. Where our friend Pete usually awaits us, was a crow, again ‘as black as your boot’. I had to take a second look, but Pixie, never doubting but that it was his old nemesis, the squirrel, took his normal stance, etc. When Pixie got within several week of the crow, the crow just quickly flew away. Pixie was dumb-founded, perhaps flabbergasted, and she just stood there in awe as the crow flew away. She then looked at me, and I heard her say, distinctly, “DID YOU SEE THAT?” I just smiled and we went about our way.
.jpg )
