I'm sitting here at 11:15pm on Tuesday night, listening to the Hoot Owl. This one is really close to the house. I wish I had night-eyes so I could see it. But I've already written about the owls, so I'll write about something Brandi, my miniature Schnauzer, did this summer.

I bought Brandi a toy the other day, a rope circle with a cloth squirrel in the center and "Hurl a Squirrel" is printed on it. Read on and you'll see why I decided on this particular toy.

We live in the country with mesquite trees along with some trees we've planted - Red Oak, Live Oak, Bradford Pear, Arborvitae, Red Cedar, and a few volunteer trees such as Ash and Hackberry. Doesn't sound like anything to attract a squirrel and although we did have a ground squirrel for a short time back in the 1970's, we hadn't seen a tree squirrel here. Well, upon further thinking, we did glimpse a squirrel once, just passing through, near the front of our driveway, and that must have been around 25 years ago.

Anyway, I was in the back yard working on a fence, one day in June. With cataracts in both eyes, I couldn't see clearly even with glasses. But I saw Brandi over by a tree, throwing something up in the air, then picking it up and throwing it up again the other direction. She does this sometimes playing with sticks, with bugs, whatever is available. But this was a bit larger and I was afraid it might be a snake. So I stopped what I was doing and walked over to her and saw it was a squirrel. I made her leave it alone, then put her in the smaller yard so she couldn't get to it.

Knowing some people might doubt my word when I said there was a squirrel in our yard, I went inside and got the camera. There was no blood around, and the squirrel had walked back over to the tree and was clinging to it, near the bottom. So I caught a few pictures as it climbed just a little higher. It didn't appear to be hurt although the tip of its' tail was slightly bent. I think it was mostly just shook up, and what wouldn't be after it was swung through the air by its tail, to and fro, several times.

Meanwhile, Brandi was still in her pen, wanting out. So I took the camera back inside, and when I returned to my work on the fence the squirrel had skedaddled. Can't say as I blame it, I would have left too, after such an unwelcome encounter. I let Brandi back out in the yard, she searched for the squirrel as I figured she would, then after awhile she went on to something else.

I'm happy the squirrel was alright, but thinking back on how funny it looked, it makes me laugh - Brandi ahold of the squirrel's tail, hurling it back & forth through the air. Oh - and the toy I bought her - she's already got the rope unraveled.