The Squirrel(s) who Ate Too Much - Part II

An allegory in 2000 chirrups
All characters in this story are fictional. However any resemblance to an alarmingly over-weight population of a stupendously consumption-driven society may not be completely coincidental. (I’m talking about the Yosemite squirrels, of course. No, really! :)

Click to Read Part I first

Part 2: Afternoon

Pine-Eyes was resting in the shade of a buck brush near the edge of Vernal Falls. Her legs ached from all the climbing she’d had to do. She buried her nose in her lush tail and closed her eyes for a well-deserved siesta. “Ma. Can I go play with the other squirrets now?” Uncurling herself, she saw Wavy-Tail sitting on his hind-legs, looking hopefully at her, his whiskers twitching in nervous anticipation. She usually made him sleep in the afternoon – he was still very young. But “OK you can go play today. But no jump-gliding while I’m not there. Its too dangerous.” Wavy-Tail ambled off happily. While she was happy that he'd largely gotten over Red's death, she also felt a little hurt that he'd done it relatively easily. But then he hadn’t known Red for very long – unlike his many older brothers and sisters. He was her baby. Her last one – She’d always known she couldn’t be with anyone but Red.

Dolefully, she tucked her nose back into her curled up tail. How had everything changed so much? It wasn’t just that she’d lost her love of many, many years. The changes had started several years back – around the time that Bushy-Brow had appeared. What was it…six winters back? That had been a tough year. That was the first year that the pine trees stopped bearing nuts and started dying. The older squirrels said it was because the weather was changing. Bushy-Brow had wandered into a Squirrel Council Meeting one day – said he was from Great Yosemite Falls and was looking for a change. He had an air of arrogance about him that turned many squirrels off – but the Vernal Falls tribe were nothing, if not hospitable.

He seemed to spend little time foraging for nuts, whiling away many mornings Tail-Sledding with the older squirrets seeing who could get to the bottom of the mound fastest. He’d disappear towards evening into the deep woods – finally to forage one assumed – and seemed to be lucky enough to never have to ask another squirrel for hard-gathered food. He was like any other squirrel; if a little more irresponsible…and seemingly lucky…than most.

But then 2 full moons after he came, he turned into a hero overnight. That was the night he ended everyone’s food worries for all time…he discovered the Food Patch…the small clearing about halfway up the hill from Vernal Falls where a small smorgasbord used to appear mysteriously everyday. All the types of squirrel foods you could think of - hazelnuts, mushrooms, even some delicious peanuts though none seemed to go grow in the Yosemite valley. There were no pine-nuts but who was complaining. It had been a wonderful meal. Everyone had eaten for two that night. And the next day, the Patch was again full of food. Everyday the heaps of nuts and mushrooms was replenished and soon everyone gave up the daily gathering of food. They’d laze about or play all day and just go to the Patch evening and feast to their heart’s content…eating much more than any squirrel could have needed.

Bushy-Brow said he’d been led to it by instinct, but believed that the Pine Mother herself had guided him to it. He also said no one should go near the Patch except after the sun had set otherwise the food wouldn’t appear. He claimed it was their sacred duty to finish all that appeared in the Food Patch...that if they didn’t, the Mother might get offended and stop providing for them. And of course they did…even though everyday the food was more than enough to feed all of them and then again by half. They also made him a de facto leader, acknowledged as such by the Squirrel Council. Then the strange eagle attacks had started. They’d heard of eagle attacks over in Nevada Falls but Vernal Falls had always been a safe place to live. They weren’t really attacks, at least not that anyone had seen, but squirrels started disappearing every so often. Now it had gotten so bad that one squirrel was disappearing every 5-10 suns or so. Everyone was scared…no one had seen an eagle but what else could it be? Bushy-Brow had rallied the troops, so to chirrup, when the attacks first began. It had to be eagles and Squirrels had to stick together, he’d said, if they were to be safe and survive. The old ways of relatively solitary, independent living didn’t work anymore – there had to be more rules about where squirrels should roam, what they should do and when; they had to have a night patrol to keep them safe and so on. The Squirrel Council had been grateful for his leadership and adopted most of his suggestions. These were scary times but at least they had the Food Patch to keep them fed and the Night Patrolers to warn them of danger.

Pine-Eyes had grown to like Bushy-Brow like most other squirrels. Except maybe the way he’d insist on spending hours everyday clearing the area around the Patch of twigs and dry grass. She found that a little weird. Its not as if he used them to build a large nest to impress a maiden squirrel with. No, he just cleared the brush. Obsessively. There was that time that Droopy-LeftEar had come running to him in tears to say she’d looked everywhere and couldn’t find her twin Droopy-RightEar anywhere. He’d asked her to rest on her haunches and give him five minutes to finish the day’s clearing.

For the most part though, Pine-Eyes (and Red) had felt grateful that Bushy-Brow had appeared just when the trying times started. But today, lying in the shade of the buck brush, she couldn’t help but wish that they could go back to the old days when there was no Bushy-Brow. Because then there were also no eagle attacks, hardly any rules, the Pine-Mother’s bounty came in the form of pine-nuts and not the Food Patch. And then, by her side, there was Red.

Click to read Part III

Part IV to follow