A stranger approached your home, brandishing a spear?? I don’t care what the reason is — I would have LOST MY SHIT.
I obviously knew about your love for squirrels, but reading about how you care for the struggling bees made me tear up a little. Neela, thank you for being the goodness balancing out this cruel world. Have a happy Tuesday!
I regret moving to this community. If it weren't for the squirrels, we would leave, but to be sure, this is our last year here. Most of the people who live here are strange and annoying. I would be heartbroken when we need to leave. Our lease ends in June 2027.
I've been saving animals since I was a teen. Once upon a time, there were 3 macaws. I left them back in Trinidad. 2 are still alive. One died. They are about 25 years old. I love most animals except roaches and spiders 😂😂😂😂
“Most of the people who live here are strange and annoying” - I LOLed at this. Reading the HOA detail in your essay made so much sense to me.
Roaches and spiders are good ones to dislike 😂😂😂 I find a spider in my bedroom about once a week and I’m soooo not happy about it. Our bedroom is in our basement, so I guess that makes sense? Idk. And idk how they’re getting in… and don’t want to think about it.
I always feel like people like that are really waging a war against something else, and the squirrel is just a proxy for the larger (possibly internal) fight for them.
How many squirrels are in the area now and how do you keep their names straight???
This same guy almost caused a brush fire on Sunday. He was welding on his front patio on a windy day. Everything was hot and dry, and a tree caught fire. The fire department had to be called.
He must have some kind of magic connection because somehow he only got a warning. 😂
We stopped naming the squirrels after number 14 because there are now about 18 of them. They don’t visit every day, though. The mommas tend to come around more often.
At this point, we have routines with them. If Ryan and I are both working and they show up to find nobody home, they’ll literally knock on the windows or start jumping around on the BBQ pit to get our attention.
Apparently, we are no longer neighbors. We are staff. 😂
This essay did something to me I wasn’t expecting. I took in a stray cat a while back, nursed him back to health, he’s mine now. But there are twenty more strays on my street I walk past every day.
So when you wrote about wanting to help the creatures we share space with, I recognized myself. And then I started wondering where my line actually is. The cat I saved versus the ones I didn’t. The squirrel versus the chicken. Not a critique of you, just what your essay cracked open. The question is sitting with me now and I don’t quite have an answer.
We help the creature in front of us and walk past another because we don’t have the capacity to help them all. I think awareness is important and that one stray cat found someone who chose him. That matters.
I read the first few lines and thought Squirrel Week was a joke and then I realised it was fucking happening to you. I am angry now. What's wrong with these legislators and whoever makes these decisions? Out of everything, squirrels digging holes CANNOT be a state legislator's priority. And definitely he cannot turn schools against them. Schools should refuse. Is it even a school if it's asking children to go around and murder squirrels.
If you didn't call 911 I hope someone did, not that that would stop them.
I hope he's not surprised next time wildfires are at his doorstep. Human beings at large have forgotten they are we less than an ephemeral speck in the grand scheme of things.
I was angry for the entire week after that incident with my neighbor. It’s amazing how something involving a few tiny squirrels can bring out such big feelings about how we treat the world around us.
And I should clarify: Squirrel Week is not an actual current event happening now. It was a past absurdity. I did report my neighbor to the HOA (community management), and they did issue a warning letter. Now we wait and see if he behaves. 😂
Thank you for reading, and for caring about my little backyard squirrels. 🐿️
Oh thank God, I misunderstood but still if it was ever happening it, ughh. I’m glad you reported him and he was warned. He seems to be part of the group who think they can lord over other humans and other beings, weaker and less important. Anyway, I’m sorry you had to go through this.
I hope Friday and the weekend improve your mood. The squirrels and we on the internet are grateful for you! ❤️
“That might be the biggest difference between the man with the pole and me. He sees a creature in his space and thinks about how to remove it. I see a creature in my space and think about how to help it survive.”
It’s Martin Buber’s brilliant insight that we can view other living beings as a THOU or an IT. Reducing a living being to a THING is the foundation mindset for every act of violence against a squirrel, woman, bison, elephant, etc etc.
I HATE the people who treat other living beings as an IT. I see that as the embodiment of evil. But don’t get me started! 😉
Thanks as always for the words worth reading and pondering, Neela. Have a good Tuesday! ☀️🌱
I didn’t expect a story about a man chasing squirrels with a sharpened pole to leave me thinking quite so much about our relationship with the natural world, but here we are 😂. I am also the bee mover. The butterfly saver. The girl who finds the nearest leaf to move whatever creature has stumbled across the way. ‘We want nature. Just curated.’ really sums up such a strange contradiction in the way we live these days. I think there’s something even bigger in here about how easily we turn something that inconveniences us, or simply exists differently from us, into something we position ourselves against. Perhaps we’ve become a little too accustomed to expecting everything around us to adapt to us. Essays like this encourage me (and fellow squirrel-lovers) to make even more space. Thanks for the food for thought, Neela. Always love your writing :)
I love that you’re a fellow bee mover and butterfly saver Jade. I knew there had to be more of us. And yes, curated nature. We want birds, butterflies, trees, and squirrels, but preferably on a schedule, at a distance, and without touching the patio furniture.
As I have commented before I dislike squirrels as I find they disrupt other animals on our forested land and harvest our strawberries. But a couple of sprays from a hose dissuades them well and keeps them alive, just somewhere else
I do the same things to robins who I find to be the most vicious of birds: we have an annual fall migration where they attack each other and other birds savagely that we call it the robincalypse. Couple shots of the hose and they clear off.
Don’t get me started on pets. Hose dissuasion of cats works perfect. That’s why we have so many birds on our land that keep us engrossed daily.
Good for you to stand up to him though you could write a series on male/male intimidation to get every facet of it. Hopefully there are more vestiges of the confrontation
By the way, I read something once that says squirrels do not have a good memory which is why they’re always at work and why they’re always digging and burying nuts and various other food sources. So that when it is the winter they can run around and smell where they’ve buried stuff without never really knowing where to find it. Another little known squirrel fact is that out of all mammals they have the greatest range of environmental temperatures that they can withstand which is why they’re able to adapt to so many climatic zones from those that are very cold to those that are very hot.
I like the diplomatic hose. Have used it on some outside squirrels who would move in to bully the rest. It works.
I’ve read the same, but after careful observation, I’m not sure that’s true, at least with these fox squirrels. 😂 They seem to plan their week ahead.
For example, we’ve had quite a bit of community work going on recently: painting, gardening, etc. These squirrels seem to anticipate the increased human traffic and the fact that they’ll have less time to forage. So, after 5 or 6, when the men go home, they come to me for extra almonds to bury.
And I’ve actually seen them revisit the spots where they buried the almonds. So I’m not convinced these little bastards have a bad memory. And ROBINCALYPSE. I love the word.
Feeling OK . Less pain, but I’m still not able to carry on regular activities completely, especially around computers or mobile devices.
By the way, I have all the “pests” that I show away with the hose, the squirrels take the longest time to get it
I think them finding and re-digging is that they have a very acute sense of smell and that’s why the strategy of burying food all over works. So in the winter – which California really doesn’t get – they can just wander all over sniffing and quickly dig up stuff.
The instinct to control what’s inconvenient rarely stays contained to squirrels. It shows up in how people treat boundaries generally, testing them until something bigger makes the risk not worth it. Ziggy is cuuute!
We get very comfortable deciding which inconveniences deserve to be tolerated and which ones must be controlled. And then we act surprised when the same instinct shows up in much bigger places.
And yes, Ziggy knows exactly how cute he is. That is part of his strategy. 😂
JFran and I were walking around in the mountains which is Chipmunk territory and they were everywhere scampering across the the road and scrambling up trees. They are 1/2 the size of a squirrel and their tail is longer than their body.
JFran started reminiscing about this book she’d read her 1st graders that talked about all the things squirrels can do with their tail. In water use it as a sail, between trees to glide, wrap it around themselves to warm up. The kids were fascinated by said book.
Here it is and for $2.11 I think it’s a steal: https://a.co/d/03hiiOjI its written and illustrated by the same guy and his Cat on the Mat is top tier fiction
You're not helping, Andrew. I'm trying to convince people squirrels aren't an existential threat, and you've just given them a list of advanced tactical capabilities. 😂
Keep giving the squirrels honey and the bees some nuts 🐝
I would have loved to see the man retreat from your property after chasing a squirrel onto it. I really don’t relate to people who look at something a 50th of their size and feel threatened. And what harm does a hole do? Stick a flower in it.
Good point! Way more threatening animals out there 🤣
We are well, had a decent nights sleep with only 4 feeds in the night (my standards for good sleep are very low now haha) so I will be able to enjoy the day. How does your weekend look?
We live in a beautiful wooded area with lots of trees and critters visible from our back windows. Our original neighbors to the left spent thousands of dollars on beautiful landscaping of flowers and shrubs then complained about the deer and threatened to poison them. Our current neighbor dislikes bees so she removed every flower to reduce the population around her home. We happily provide food to the deer, birds, turkeys and squirrels and love to watch all the activity. And we added some lavender out front to call the bees over to our yard.
Your yard sounds like it has a much better guest list than most neighborhoods. 😂 The deer, birds, turkeys, squirrels, and bees clearly know where the good party is.
I will never understand planting a buffet and then getting angry when someone comes to eat.
It is a party in our backyard for sure! LOL My husband, now loving referred to as “Brother Nature” is now putting seed on the steps right outside our sliding glass door for the squirrels and chipmunks, creating a new Cat TV channel for the folks inside.
A stranger approached your home, brandishing a spear?? I don’t care what the reason is — I would have LOST MY SHIT.
I obviously knew about your love for squirrels, but reading about how you care for the struggling bees made me tear up a little. Neela, thank you for being the goodness balancing out this cruel world. Have a happy Tuesday!
Happy Tuesday Amanda
I regret moving to this community. If it weren't for the squirrels, we would leave, but to be sure, this is our last year here. Most of the people who live here are strange and annoying. I would be heartbroken when we need to leave. Our lease ends in June 2027.
I've been saving animals since I was a teen. Once upon a time, there were 3 macaws. I left them back in Trinidad. 2 are still alive. One died. They are about 25 years old. I love most animals except roaches and spiders 😂😂😂😂
Thank you for reading Amanda
“Most of the people who live here are strange and annoying” - I LOLed at this. Reading the HOA detail in your essay made so much sense to me.
Roaches and spiders are good ones to dislike 😂😂😂 I find a spider in my bedroom about once a week and I’m soooo not happy about it. Our bedroom is in our basement, so I guess that makes sense? Idk. And idk how they’re getting in… and don’t want to think about it.
I always feel like people like that are really waging a war against something else, and the squirrel is just a proxy for the larger (possibly internal) fight for them.
How many squirrels are in the area now and how do you keep their names straight???
Hey bro
This same guy almost caused a brush fire on Sunday. He was welding on his front patio on a windy day. Everything was hot and dry, and a tree caught fire. The fire department had to be called.
He must have some kind of magic connection because somehow he only got a warning. 😂
We stopped naming the squirrels after number 14 because there are now about 18 of them. They don’t visit every day, though. The mommas tend to come around more often.
At this point, we have routines with them. If Ryan and I are both working and they show up to find nobody home, they’ll literally knock on the windows or start jumping around on the BBQ pit to get our attention.
Apparently, we are no longer neighbors. We are staff. 😂
Thank you for taking the time, bro.
Neela, Thank you for sharing.
This essay did something to me I wasn’t expecting. I took in a stray cat a while back, nursed him back to health, he’s mine now. But there are twenty more strays on my street I walk past every day.
So when you wrote about wanting to help the creatures we share space with, I recognized myself. And then I started wondering where my line actually is. The cat I saved versus the ones I didn’t. The squirrel versus the chicken. Not a critique of you, just what your essay cracked open. The question is sitting with me now and I don’t quite have an answer.
Hey Chanti
How are you?
Good question.
We help the creature in front of us and walk past another because we don’t have the capacity to help them all. I think awareness is important and that one stray cat found someone who chose him. That matters.
I hope that helps.
Thank you for taking the time.
I love that you, "lost your shit". A great essay, thank you for sharing.
Happy Thursday evening, Luke
I rarely lose my shit. 😂
Thank you for reading and for the coffee.
Appreciate it.
I read the first few lines and thought Squirrel Week was a joke and then I realised it was fucking happening to you. I am angry now. What's wrong with these legislators and whoever makes these decisions? Out of everything, squirrels digging holes CANNOT be a state legislator's priority. And definitely he cannot turn schools against them. Schools should refuse. Is it even a school if it's asking children to go around and murder squirrels.
If you didn't call 911 I hope someone did, not that that would stop them.
I hope he's not surprised next time wildfires are at his doorstep. Human beings at large have forgotten they are we less than an ephemeral speck in the grand scheme of things.
Hey sis
I was angry for the entire week after that incident with my neighbor. It’s amazing how something involving a few tiny squirrels can bring out such big feelings about how we treat the world around us.
And I should clarify: Squirrel Week is not an actual current event happening now. It was a past absurdity. I did report my neighbor to the HOA (community management), and they did issue a warning letter. Now we wait and see if he behaves. 😂
Thank you for reading, and for caring about my little backyard squirrels. 🐿️
Oh thank God, I misunderstood but still if it was ever happening it, ughh. I’m glad you reported him and he was warned. He seems to be part of the group who think they can lord over other humans and other beings, weaker and less important. Anyway, I’m sorry you had to go through this.
I hope Friday and the weekend improve your mood. The squirrels and we on the internet are grateful for you! ❤️
No worries at all, sis.
😂 The squirrels and I appreciate your support.
Have the best weekend as well
Oh boy. I might need to come over and have a talk with this man.
He’s a tiny thing.
We can definitely take him out 😂😂
“That might be the biggest difference between the man with the pole and me. He sees a creature in his space and thinks about how to remove it. I see a creature in my space and think about how to help it survive.”
It’s Martin Buber’s brilliant insight that we can view other living beings as a THOU or an IT. Reducing a living being to a THING is the foundation mindset for every act of violence against a squirrel, woman, bison, elephant, etc etc.
I HATE the people who treat other living beings as an IT. I see that as the embodiment of evil. But don’t get me started! 😉
Thanks as always for the words worth reading and pondering, Neela. Have a good Tuesday! ☀️🌱
Happy Tuesday Baird
I knew someone was going to bring philosophy into my squirrel crime investigation. 😂
I love it..
THOU versus IT - The moment something becomes just a thing, it becomes much easier to justify what we do to it.
Thank you, my friend.
Have a wonderful Tuesday as well.
Someone in my high school yearbook referred to me as a “philo-suffer”. Apparently this has been going on for a long time! 😉
😂😂😂
I changed my pub from Business and Culture to Philosophy and Culture.
It's more suitable, I think.
Your saving the bee reminds me of a fable - The Star Thrower https://starthrower.com/pages/the-star-thrower-story. I think entitlement thinking has a lot to answer for.
I love this story, Tina.
Yes, it does.
The one creature in front of you matters.
Thank you for being here, Tina.
I didn’t expect a story about a man chasing squirrels with a sharpened pole to leave me thinking quite so much about our relationship with the natural world, but here we are 😂. I am also the bee mover. The butterfly saver. The girl who finds the nearest leaf to move whatever creature has stumbled across the way. ‘We want nature. Just curated.’ really sums up such a strange contradiction in the way we live these days. I think there’s something even bigger in here about how easily we turn something that inconveniences us, or simply exists differently from us, into something we position ourselves against. Perhaps we’ve become a little too accustomed to expecting everything around us to adapt to us. Essays like this encourage me (and fellow squirrel-lovers) to make even more space. Thanks for the food for thought, Neela. Always love your writing :)
I love that you’re a fellow bee mover and butterfly saver Jade. I knew there had to be more of us. And yes, curated nature. We want birds, butterflies, trees, and squirrels, but preferably on a schedule, at a distance, and without touching the patio furniture.
Thank you for reading, and Happy weekend to you.
As I have commented before I dislike squirrels as I find they disrupt other animals on our forested land and harvest our strawberries. But a couple of sprays from a hose dissuades them well and keeps them alive, just somewhere else
I do the same things to robins who I find to be the most vicious of birds: we have an annual fall migration where they attack each other and other birds savagely that we call it the robincalypse. Couple shots of the hose and they clear off.
Don’t get me started on pets. Hose dissuasion of cats works perfect. That’s why we have so many birds on our land that keep us engrossed daily.
Good for you to stand up to him though you could write a series on male/male intimidation to get every facet of it. Hopefully there are more vestiges of the confrontation
By the way, I read something once that says squirrels do not have a good memory which is why they’re always at work and why they’re always digging and burying nuts and various other food sources. So that when it is the winter they can run around and smell where they’ve buried stuff without never really knowing where to find it. Another little known squirrel fact is that out of all mammals they have the greatest range of environmental temperatures that they can withstand which is why they’re able to adapt to so many climatic zones from those that are very cold to those that are very hot.
Hey David
Happy Monday. How are you feeling?
I remembered very well 😂
I like the diplomatic hose. Have used it on some outside squirrels who would move in to bully the rest. It works.
I’ve read the same, but after careful observation, I’m not sure that’s true, at least with these fox squirrels. 😂 They seem to plan their week ahead.
For example, we’ve had quite a bit of community work going on recently: painting, gardening, etc. These squirrels seem to anticipate the increased human traffic and the fact that they’ll have less time to forage. So, after 5 or 6, when the men go home, they come to me for extra almonds to bury.
And I’ve actually seen them revisit the spots where they buried the almonds. So I’m not convinced these little bastards have a bad memory. And ROBINCALYPSE. I love the word.
Thank you David.
Feeling OK . Less pain, but I’m still not able to carry on regular activities completely, especially around computers or mobile devices.
By the way, I have all the “pests” that I show away with the hose, the squirrels take the longest time to get it
I think them finding and re-digging is that they have a very acute sense of smell and that’s why the strategy of burying food all over works. So in the winter – which California really doesn’t get – they can just wander all over sniffing and quickly dig up stuff.
Keep up the good work!
Glad you’re feeling a little better, David. Hopefully the rest follows soon.
Take care of yourself!
The instinct to control what’s inconvenient rarely stays contained to squirrels. It shows up in how people treat boundaries generally, testing them until something bigger makes the risk not worth it. Ziggy is cuuute!
Hey Gino
That’s a good point
The squirrel is rarely just about the squirrel.
We get very comfortable deciding which inconveniences deserve to be tolerated and which ones must be controlled. And then we act surprised when the same instinct shows up in much bigger places.
And yes, Ziggy knows exactly how cute he is. That is part of his strategy. 😂
Thank you very much for reading Gino.
I love squirrels. They are my spirit animal. I am happy that you defended them.
I will defend them with my life Sandy.
Thank you for reading
JFran and I were walking around in the mountains which is Chipmunk territory and they were everywhere scampering across the the road and scrambling up trees. They are 1/2 the size of a squirrel and their tail is longer than their body.
JFran started reminiscing about this book she’d read her 1st graders that talked about all the things squirrels can do with their tail. In water use it as a sail, between trees to glide, wrap it around themselves to warm up. The kids were fascinated by said book.
Here it is and for $2.11 I think it’s a steal: https://a.co/d/03hiiOjI its written and illustrated by the same guy and his Cat on the Mat is top tier fiction
You're not helping, Andrew. I'm trying to convince people squirrels aren't an existential threat, and you've just given them a list of advanced tactical capabilities. 😂
I got the book, btw.
They are amazing animals.
Thank you for this and for reading.
Happy Friday
Guy sounds a little cray. Lol, wonder what made him act out like that for the first time in the last 2 years?
He's been acting out for months now. Our community mostly has this shared hatred for squirrels.
I think he expected solidarity from us.
I used some choice trini cuss words on him.
Thank you very much for reading, bro.
I hope you had a good week.
Keep giving the squirrels honey and the bees some nuts 🐝
I would have loved to see the man retreat from your property after chasing a squirrel onto it. I really don’t relate to people who look at something a 50th of their size and feel threatened. And what harm does a hole do? Stick a flower in it.
I've met geese. I've met raccoons. I've even met turkeys with attitude. Squirrels wouldn't crack my Top 20 list of things I'm worried about.
How are you Nadine?
Happy Friday to you and L
Good point! Way more threatening animals out there 🤣
We are well, had a decent nights sleep with only 4 feeds in the night (my standards for good sleep are very low now haha) so I will be able to enjoy the day. How does your weekend look?
Happy Monday Nadine
Haha, four feeds being a decent night tells me your definition of sleep has changed considerably. 😂 But I’m glad you got enough to enjoy the day!
My weekend was low-key, which I’m very happy about.
Because the next 2 weeks will be rough.
Work-wise.
I hope you and L have a good week ahead Nadine
Sending strength for this tough week! Hope there’s plenty of coffee and whisky at either end of it ☕️
coffee - check
whisky - check
thank you Nadine
We live in a beautiful wooded area with lots of trees and critters visible from our back windows. Our original neighbors to the left spent thousands of dollars on beautiful landscaping of flowers and shrubs then complained about the deer and threatened to poison them. Our current neighbor dislikes bees so she removed every flower to reduce the population around her home. We happily provide food to the deer, birds, turkeys and squirrels and love to watch all the activity. And we added some lavender out front to call the bees over to our yard.
Happy Thursday Fran
Your yard sounds like it has a much better guest list than most neighborhoods. 😂 The deer, birds, turkeys, squirrels, and bees clearly know where the good party is.
I will never understand planting a buffet and then getting angry when someone comes to eat.
Thank you very much for reading
“Removed every flower” sounds pretty grim. Hope the bees love it at your place Fran!
I know, right? All the creatures are welcome in our yard. That is the beauty of having the woods behind us.
It is a party in our backyard for sure! LOL My husband, now loving referred to as “Brother Nature” is now putting seed on the steps right outside our sliding glass door for the squirrels and chipmunks, creating a new Cat TV channel for the folks inside.
“Brother Nature” 😂😂
Happy Monday Fran
I hope you have a good week ahead.
You too Neela!
Thank you Fran