Squirrel?

 This winter I resumed feeding the wild birds for the enjoyment of it. The cats no longer have access to the area since it’s regularly patrolled by the canine pack. The birds are abundant and new furry faces are showing up. We’ve had a few squirrels visit the deck and surrounding trees over the past few years, but nothing regular. Now one has figured out the free food location. How long will he survive with 3 overly enthusiastic dogs on his fluffy tail? I’m not feeling hopeful. Today he managed to escape the deck, run up the big Ponderosa pine and leap (a leap of faith) towards the scraggly branches of the cherry trees. I stared in horror as he fell over 15 feet before grabbing a branch. Whew! Saved for another day.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to train Moby about squirrels. To get his attention, all one has to do is ask “Squirrel??” or make their characteristic chattering sound. He makes a b-line to the door and starts searching the trees. Yes, kind of like Doug the dog in the movie UP. The focus is just as intense. Our last pointer was enthralled by cats. We would ask her “Where’s the kitty?” and she would search out our house cats and nudge them. At least she didn’t want to eat them. The neighborhood cats were a different story… 

I spent about 10-15 min working on this sketch of a Western Grey Squirrel. It was fun to play large and set a time limit. That’s it for today. Back to estate stuff. 😦

Materials: 18″x 24″ rough newsprint, vine charcoal, Jack Richeson compressed charcoal.