My dad has had a family of squirrels living in the maple in his front yard for as long as I can remember. Jacob spent most of last summer and fall babbling away at the branches and leaves swaying in the breeze, but this summer he was actually able to see and focus on things running around… like the squirrels. About once a week, I would go outside and throw some bread bits around the yard and by the base of the tree. Jacob would go out with me and throw a few pieces, too, but they generally ended up right by his feet. He’d pick up bits and try to throw again only to have it land in pretty much the same place. We’d toddle back to the sidewalk together (or else a patch of grass a short distance from the tree) and sit down to wait for one of them to scamper down the tree trunk. There’s always been a brave one in every bunch, and this year we had the bravest one I’ve seen yet.
The last week of June and the first week of July, Jacob and I 
unintentionally started tossing out bread and dry, unsalted peanuts on a daily basis. It wasn’t long before the brave squirrel got brazen and started jumping and climbing up the storm door wondering why we hadn’t come out to feed him each morning! Oops.
The first morning it happened was the first day that we hadn’t fed them that week. Dave and I were sitting in the living room (while Jacob was taking his first nap) and heard the cat smacking and scratching the door trying to get a bug. Or at least that’s what we thought the noise was… until I turned around to take a look and saw the squirrel up on the handle of the storm door! He leaped down (probably unable to hold his precarious position any longer) and stood by door looking in. He slowly walked back and forth in front of the door and then tried to jump up to the doorknob again. “HEY! Where’s the food, people?! I’m HUNGRY!”
Dave thought it was cute and insisted that we should throw something out to the little critter. I felt bad for having made this “wild” creature so tame as to approach a human dwelling for food, but I was pretty certain that it would start foraging again - for nuts and whatever else town squirrels eat - once we moved and it wasn’t being fed any longer (by my dad). Winter was still a ways away, so it had plenty of time to become “wild” again.
This happened again the nex
t morning, and Jacob was awake to see it. He sat down in the doorway with Dave… and Grace. Jacob was so excited to see the squirrel so close. I love kids’ natural adoration for animals. Dave tossed some peanuts onto the sidewalk, and the three of them sat watching until the peanuts were gone. Squirrely stood around waiting for more but was content to lay around on the sidewalk and poke around in the grass once we left the doorway.
