Seamus And The Squirrel

Today while Seamus was leading me on his daily inspection of our parking lots (he likes license plates), I noticed something rather remarkable: a squirrel climbing up the outside of our apartment building. He wasn't using a drainpipe or any other architectural feature: he was just somehow holding onto the bricks. I pointed this out to to Seamus, and he was fascinated, pointing at the squirrel and exclaiming, "Wha' dat??".

We then continued on our walk, but every few minutes, Seamus would take a break from his license plate inspection and pull me back to the wall, where the squirrel was now executing advanced maneuvers, skittering back and forth across the brick wall with as much ease as if it had been horizontal rather than vertical.

Seamus walked right up to the wall and stared up at the squirrel. The squirrel, about ten feet overhead and facing straight down, stared back. Seamus then started trying to climb the wall and join the squirrel in his little game. I had to gently explain to him that, lacking sharp little claws, he was not going to make much progress in this endeavor. He allowed me to pull his hands away from the wall, but looked wistfully up at the squirrel. The squirrel, about ten feet overhead and facing downwards, stared back in what I imagine was amazement.


spider squirrel, spider squirrel, doin' whatever a spider squirrel does ...