Monday, May 21

New Pets

The Thomas family is known for its odd variety of pets. Dogs? Cats? Those are for normal families. No, we go for the more unusual and exotic domestic companions. While we have had some fairly normal pets like fish and hamsters, our list of pets past also includes such things as ferrets, snakes, hedgehogs, and sugar gliders. What, you ask, are the mysterious new pets of the Thomas abode? To answer this question I believe I shall tell a little story.


This morning as I was eating, I noticed a squirrel out on the railing of our deck. I had heard my other family members tell tales of this notorious squirrel who seems to have caught a taste for the peanuts we leave in the yard for it. I went to get my camera and slowly, quietly, sneaked back to the sliding glass door, hoping not to scare it away before I got my camera ready. Instead of scampering off, the squirrel seemed to perk up a little bit. I began to take snapshots and was amazed to see it leaning towards me and not scurrying off. "My what a bold little squirrel we have here," I thought to myself.

I put my camera down on the table and finished breakfast, still thinking on the funny little squirrel we've apparently befriended. I finished eating and was about to go about my day when I heard a thumping sort of noise come from the deck. I went to the door and saw, much to my surprise, a squirrel hanging onto one of the frames of the sliding glass door! Shocked, I grabbed my camera, but too late. The little squirrel was spooked and jumped back onto the railing. I stood in front of the door hoping that it might return. He did not seem interested in coming back for a second round with the door, so I began to turn away, but was stopped by what I saw in my peripheral vision. A second squirrel had decided to pay a visit.

I watched in wonder as this daring little squirrel meandered right up to the glass door that I was only inches away from. I began to take pictures, hurriedly at first because I thought he might lose courage and dart away. I soon realized that my fears were unfounded as I watched this audacious animal stand on its hind legs and plaster its paws on the glass. Then it leaped up onto the door frame by the door handle, looking at me expectantly. To say that I was surprised would be a mild description. The squirrel must have decided that he was not being properly rewarded for his feat of climbing the door frame because he eventually hopped back down onto the deck and reverted to pawing at the door hopefully.

I've decided that these new pets should be named, and when I relayed the events my brother Stephen, he dubbed the first squirrel Skippy. I have yet to think of a good bold name for the second squirrel. And just for clarification, we do leave peanuts and sometimes corn out in the yard for the squirrels, but we never feed them up on our deck or near the house.

10 comments:

Bivan said...

i like your new pets i hope you can think of a good name for the other one i'd make a suggestion but i already know what the response would be lol

Christy Joy said...

haha, i think bob would be a great name! lol, but unfortunately, i know kristin's response as well.

this is a funny recounting kristin! I was highly amused. and the pictures are adorable! make sure the squirrels don't have rabies! lol.

Anonymous said...

I told you to name them "Pesto" and "Basil"! Mom E

GypsumWolf said...

Awesome! I love animals! Wow! you had a sugar glider? thats cool! I really want to leave the dorm here at sau so I can get pets besides just fish. At the moment I have a blue male Betta Fish.

Brian said...

Bivan, what would the response be if you suggested your name. I'm kindof at a loss, but that's OK. I like skippy. I have an idea for a name, but it is not very becoming to a squirell (Ah, how do you spell squirel!!!!!????)

Kristin said...

I'm not sure if our entire family has been able to agree on two names... So far the winning combos are: Pesto and Basil, Ben and Skippy, and Smooth and Crunchy. We would have named them Mac and PC, but we couldn't agree on which squirrel would be which.
Jonathan: The sugar glider was cool, except that since it was nocturnal and its cage was in my room, I had to sing or talk to it at night to get it to be quiet so I could sleep. I love animals too :) It's too bad that you couldn't have kept that baby raccoon; my dad used to have a raccoon as a pet when he was young.
Brian: Ivan seems to be slightly obsessed with naming things (and nephews) boB... so that was the name he was going to suggest :)

Christen said...

Lol. When I read your title I got excited for you. I thought you might have finally gotten a dog (in addition to the little hamster). But hey, this is much cooler!!! I'm glad you got pictures. They're adorable! There was a fox in our yard the other day. But I guess he was bolder than I was. :)

Kelsey said...

What a cute squirrel!! I was unable to think of a suitable name for the other squirrel, soo... Since Skippy is a brand of peanut butter, I googled "Peanut butter brands" and came up with Heinz, Krema, Jif, Smucker, Peter Pan, etc. But my favorite is not a brand: the "Fluffernutter" (thank you Wikipedia!) is a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmellow creme.

Caitlin said...

quite creative Kelsey! fluffernutter indeed :) Kristin, those pictures are awesome! did you talk to the squirrel?

Kristin said...

Christen: I thought they were pretty cool pets, but I would have settled for a dog over them any day :) And that's really neat that you saw a fox!
Kelsey: Thank you for the peanut butter brand names... :) We had thought about that, and were going to call them Jif and Skippy. I should see how everyone likes Fluffernutter though ;)
Caitlin: I thought I got rather lucky with the pictures too :) And I didn't exactly talk to them; I was a little bit too surprised for many words :P