How Squirrels Train Humans

LOL! This squirrel reminds me of one particularly bold one who raps on my patio door on Saturday and Sunday mornings as I sit at the dinette table reading the newspaper. He's bold as brass and won't stop with his antics until I toss out extra nuts - and he doesn't want peanuts - only the best will do for him: walnuts, pecans, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, filberts. My squirrels have me well trained. From Macon.com Bold squirrel goes for handout at downtown office December 4, 2007 By Liz Fabian For more than two years, Martha Reed has noticed a little squirrel outside her office window in downtown Macon. Then, two weeks ago when the squirrel was foraging around in the grass, she tossed a pecan his way. Now he comes calling several times a day, scratching on the glass door of Bob Lewis and Associates on the first floor of the old Southern Trust building that serves as the City Hall Annex. "He's just turned out to be a pet. I guess I ought to name him," Reed said. "I just don't know what I ought to call him." When she left work Friday, she felt a little guilty. "I thought about him all weekend," Reed said. "I thought, 'He's going to have to fend for himself. I'm not coming down here on the weekends just to feed him.' " When Reed got back to work Monday, the squirrel was bolder than ever. "He even climbs up on the door, up on the handle, wanting me to open it," she said. Reed makes sure she doesn't get too close to her new friend. "A squirrel will bite, and I don't trust him," she said. Once he gets a nut, the bushy-tailed rodent scurries over to a small patch of sod nestled between the concrete sidewalks. He looks around and ducks into the bushes. When he finds a good hiding place, he digs a while and buries the nut. "I'm afraid I might have done the wrong thing. I don't want him to be dependent on me to feed him every day," she said. So how many pecans does John Doe Squirrel get a day? "I have no idea," Reed said with a laugh. By lunchtime Monday, an office colleague was already on the way to buy more pecans. "I guess we'll feed him all winter."