"Little Joe" The Patriotic Squirrel It was a beautiful, warm, first week of September day. I was out on the patio holding my camera hoping to get some pictures of our backyard residents. I will have to say that through the open windows I did hear some commotion evidently taking place out in the front but more determined to get a picture than curious, I kept my place. Timing was perfect. Both Mandy dove and Clover cottontail were on the patio and I had achieved the picture below. Readying myself for another photo, I raised the camera but stopped short as Little Joe Squirrel came tearing around the corner of the house to reach where I stood. "Well, Joe", I said. "Do you want your picture taken too?" Smiling, I snapped the now famous photo seen at the head of this page. It was then that I noticed that Joe was clearly upset. His tail was swishing nervously and he seemed frozen in his stance. Hearing the front doorbell ringing I turned from Joe and when I turned back I saw that he had taken off toward the fence...in a hurry... scaring both Mandy and Clover in the process. Knowing that picture taking was over for the day I headed into the house to answer the front door, finding a very angry neighbor on the step. "I want you to come out here and see what your squirrel has done." By now I knew that the words "your" and "squirrel" spoken in the same sentence usually meant trouble and as I followed her to the front of her house I thought..."Isn't he God's squirrel??" but that had little effect on the current situation. Reaching the huge tree in her parkway, she pointed toward the top. "What do you see?" she asked. Peering up into the branches at first I couldn't believe what I saw. But yet, there it was! Hanging from a squirrel nest, mightily waving in the breeze, was the American flag! I looked at my neighbor, dumbfounded as she pointed to the small flags that lined her driveway. One was clearly missing. My neighbor, not amused by the situation in the least, picked up one of the remaining flags. "That squirrel", she stated, "took one of my flags and heisted it up into his nest." Trying very hard not to laugh, I gave her the only explanation I could think of. September 11th. was only a few days away. Many had their flags displayed in memory of the day. "Well", I said, "Little Joe must be a patriotic squirrel." Still not amused she turned to go into her house but not before giving a final warning. "You may think this is funny, but I think it is against the law to do that with the flag!" To this day Little Joe is still running from the United States government! Please close the window to return to the page you were viewing. *smile*