A Tale of Nuts and Perseverance

Things were coming together nicely, he thought. The week hadn’t started this way at all, his mamma kicking him out of the house after telling him it was time he found his place in the world. She was right, of course, and she had trained him well. But still, things had been hard these past few days.

Today however, as his stomach growled loudly, things were finally looking up. He had found a wonderful and warm little shelter, next to a clear stream, and he was now staring at his dinner, and probably breakfast and lunch too!

He had been casing the joint all day. There were no dogs, no cats, no predators of any sort and the inhabitants of the house seemed like a nice bunch. They at least seemed nicer than the folks he met yesterday who threw stones at him. This had been a rather unpleasant experience.

As the wonderful aroma of the food he loved most filled his nostrils (did you ever notice that food smelled better when you were hungry?), his thoughts got back to the mission at hand: filling his stomach.

He had to be honest though. He had behaved rather like a child earlier today, trying to get to the food the easiest way he could think of: climbing the pole holding the box. He should have known better than to rush into things, just because he was hungry. Somebody with a strange sense of humour had covered said pole with oil and cayenne pepper. It had taken him a couple of hours, after trying to lick it all off, for his mouth and throat to stop burning. Fortunately, that time spent waiting for the fire inside of him to rescind, gave him the opportunity to study the terrain in greater details.

Obviously, the people living here had thought long and hard about others coming and stealing all their food. This was probably food they had put aside for the coming winter too. He would work long and hard to protect his food if he were in their shoes. That being said, the more he stared at the contraption, the least impressed he was. This was going to be way too easy. All he needed was to keep his wits and use his agility. His mama always told him he was the most agile of her children!

He salivated in anticipation, his nose twitching, white whiskers shaking and bushy tail whipping up and down. He visualised each of the stages between him and the food, step by step. First, jump from the fence to the first platform, then cross over to the house on the rope ladder, follow the tube down, enter the box, and finally jump from pole to pole to reach the nuts. Easy peasy!

As he took one deep breath, he launched himself, running over the fence and jumping the three feet to the first platform. From there, he didn’t hesitate and started on the rope ladder linking that first platform to the house. He barely had time to take more than a couple of steps before the whole contraption started shaking uncontrollably. Nothing he did to recover his balance worked. He found himself falling down to the ground, surprised and utterly confused. His training kicked in automatically, he spread his limbs and tail wide, to slow down his fall, and just as he was about to hit the ground, he brought his arms and legs closer to soften his landing.

He knew instinctively that he was not safe on the grass, so despite this whole ordeal, he rushed back up to the fence and took a moment to catch his breath. Alright he thought, it was maybe a little harder than it looked.

It took him three attempts to get to the little house on top of yet another pole, and he only made it because he decided to forego the rope ladder all together and just jump the four feet to the house.

He was absolutely convinced his mamma would not have been impressed by how long it took him to reach that first step! Life on his own really was harder than he had thought it would be.

Once at the house, he pushed the door and walked in, inspecting the hole occupying the middle of the floor. A large tube was attached to it, heading straight down. He tried to hold onto the side and slowly walked down, but that didn’t go according to plan either, as he found himself falling vertically. His landing was softened by the little net at the bottom thankfully. This certainly gave him a fright … but if he was honest with himself, he absolutely and totally wanted to do that again. This had been exhilarating!

As he couldn’t find a way to climb back up (those walls were really slippery!), the only way left was forward. He hesitantly passed his head through the hole opening on the next part of the trail, and nose up, sniffed the air for clues or traps. All he could smell were the humans who put it all together, and nuts. There was a nut nearby he thought, he was certain of it.

He walked fully through the hole and started following the path until he got to a crossroad. Right or left? The nut smell was stronger on the left, so left it was. But after running through several corridors, turning again and again, he ended up in a dead-end. He sat on his furry little butt for few seconds. Well, he thought, it seems he was going to have to work for this nut too. He went back to the first crossroad and turned right this time. And he kept going like that, sometimes finding the right path, sometimes ending up in yet another cul-de- sac, but after several (by that he meant A LOT!) more turns and fails he found his first nut.

He stared at it for a full minute, in awe at the magnificent golden piece of heaven. And the humans here were so nice, they had taken the walnut out of its shell, and it was just there, waiting for him. He approached it slowly, feeling his lungs with the wonderful aroma. He grabbed it with all the reverence he could muster, his little paws holding onto it as he started munching away. He didn’t think he had ever tasted such a delicious nut in his whole life! He decided that even if he didn’t make it any further, this whole adventure would have been worth it just for this.

Once done with his little amuse-bouche, and fluffy tail vibrating in excitement, he continued his path, and finally exited this strange contraption made of so many false trails. As he took a big gulp of fresh air, he started assessing the next step. There were four poles, probably four feet apart, with some sort of little round dish at the top. He could jump four feet easily. This wasn’t even a challenge!

He got on all fours, butt in the air, tail whipping and launched himself up to the first dish. As he landed, in what he thought was a perfect jump, the dish suddenly started moving just as all four of his paws hit it. It wouldn’t stay still, no matter what position he was trying to get into, the dish under him kept moving, up, down, right, left, one side to the next. He was desperately trying to use his tail to achieve balance, but to no avail. Here he was, again, in the air!

As he achieved a textbook landing on the soft grass, and ran straight for the fence again, he pondered about how very, and he meant VERY, annoyed he was at the whole experience. He could see there was no other way back up. The only solution was to start this whole thing again! How very frustrating he thought!

And here he was, starting from the beginning… again! Jump. Platform. Jump. House. Slide. Box of crazy corridors (this time he knew the fastest path though). Platform. First pole. Second pole. Fall.

Rinse and repeat! He was now officially annoyed and angry. These humans would not get the best of him.

At his fourth attempt he made it to the third pole.

At his sixth attempt he reached the last platform. At long last he thought. He was famished, the eaten walnut long forgotten by now!

But there was still one last obstacle between him and the mountain of nuts he could see, and smell. They were in a squared box with no visible entrance. There was some sort of big circle, with wooden bits coming out at the front.

He went close and smelled it all. The human smell was stronger on the little wooden bits. Ears flipping, and tail vibrating, he thought for an instant. What would happen if he touched those wooden bits?

He put one paw on the one closest to him, and it wiggled. He pushed it down further, heard a little click, and as if by magic, the door opened, letting all the walnuts, the hazelnuts and the pecan nuts drop onto the platform, surrounding him. He was in squirrel heaven! His mamma would be so proud of him if she were here. There were more nuts than he had seen in his entire life!

Ignoring the world around him, he just sat there, picked the biggest hazelnut he could find, and started eating it. His tail quivering, his whiskers trembling, he picked another nut, and another. And right there, he knew everything was going to be alright. He had found his place in the world.

As he gorged himself and pondered about the meaning of life, he failed to notice the human behind the window, staring at him in awe. He had watched the whole thing. He could not believe it had taken this tiny squirrel less than an hour to overcome all of the carefully planned traps that had taken him months to design and weeks to build.

Maybe humans were not the most intelligent creatures on the planet after all. He shivered as he wondered what would happen if squirrels were at the top of the food chain!