A couple of evenings ago, I witnessed an extraordinary event that changes my view of the Sky/Buddy relationship. The usual routine had gone on that I documented in an earlier post: Buddy chases Sky who goes into the superior position on top of the pool deck railing. What happened next was a page ripped from any horror film: Sky was one surprised squirrel as he watched Buddy, climb up the pool railing, paw over paw, lifting his 14.5 lbs three feet to the top and calmly stride over to Sky.
But is this what it seems? Ten minutes earlier, I was working at the kitchen counter overlooking the deck and Sky was there peering up at me. He prairie-dogged a couple of times in the raised beds, ran over to the slider, then to the Diner and back to the deck. The thought came to mind that he was looking for someone: Buddy. I wondered if this was not about inter-species conflict, but Sky looking for his playmate? Sky was damaged as a youngun and loved playing chasing games with his siblings. A year later, they have gone their own way for the most part. I wonder if Sky is stuck in some sort of squirrel arrested development, longing for those fun times and has selected Buddy as a proxy. Supporting this thesis is the photo above. Look at Buddy's tail position. I looked it up and most sites agree on its meaning: confident, happy, "I am happy to see you!" We see this tail language frequently when encountering Buddy. This is certainly not the attitude one would see if Buddy was being aggressive or angry.
Very curious. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment