This guy lives in one of the trees in my yard and seems to be overly friendly. I believe my son spoilt him by offering him cookies etc. This morning I was working on my car in the garage and I had stepped in to the house for grabbing some tools when I heard someone at the door that leads in to the house from the garage. As I opened it I saw this guy staring at me, he had entered the garage and was trying to get inside the house. I yelled for my son who came running and together we tried to scare this guy to leave. However he didn't seem to be initmidated by us. Instead he coolly scanned the room and then walked in, on to the rug in our family room and began insepcting my son's toys. All the while I was trying to shoo him away, but instead he glanced at me like I was putting up an interesting show for him! He then finally climbed on to a goody bag full of candies that my son had left on the rug. The thing fell on top of him, he carefully selected a "kisses" candy and then slowly walked out the same way he had come in. He then climbed on the fence and sitting in the sun enjoyed the candy. I ran upstairs and grabbed my camera after closing the garage doors and then took these pictures. He seemed to ignore my presence and licked his paws while I was maybe a few feet away from him clicking these shots. I am amazed by this little guy's courage - had no idea they become so accustomed to humans.

[Rupert]

Hmmm.....must be one of the new "Stealthy" models Otis has been producing? I've heard of them, but they are near impossible to see!

Regards!

[debmalya]

Hmmm.....must be one of the new "Stealthy" models Otis has been producing? I've heard of them, but they are near impossible to see!

Regards!

I know you like squirrels. This guy is a little too brave though. After posting this, we were going out for lunch and again this guy showed up. He came close, sat at my feet and looked up, and then jumped up and climbed on me! I admit I was slightly scared at first. My son brought him another "kisses" and he quickly grabbed it and climbed on a tree branch to enjoy. It seems he expects us to feed him. Personally I do not ever feed wild animals just because of this. Last night there was a deer standing on the driveway that refused to let me in! I guess these animals are getting used to humans, not good for them or us, either.

[debmalya]

By the way, can some one confirm if they can see the pictures in my post? I only see a place holder icon and if I click on the icon I see the actual picture. But I do not see the picture in the thread.

[Jean Poitiers]

I cannot see your photos on the thread, but I can see them in your album named "Today" ... J

[Rupert]

....just a word of warning on the Squirrels, before I approach too close (unless it is Otis) I always check to see if they are carrying a gun or a knife. You can't be too careful nowadays, Otis has armed most every Squirrel in the world. They take what you give them at first...then they take what they want at gunpoint...just beware!

Regards!

[magkelly]

Eh, looks like he's adopted you, laugh. Chocolate is not particularly good for squirrels though. Might want to keep a bag of nuts around instead. I've had that happen though, a squirrel just climbing up my jeans to beg for food. Squirrels are technically wild animals but like pigeons they've been around humans for a very long time. Most of them have very little fear of humans at all from what I've seen. It doesn't take much to get them acting like that. I admit I feed the ones at our library sometimes. They come running right up to me when they see me, sit on the benches there and talk to me, take the nuts right from my hands. They're not really aggressive animals, just a little bit over friendly and curious.

I find that if I just let them know I don't want them on me say "Uhuh, no way, down!" in a firm tone of voice they get down. They're very smart animals, squirrels. I know that feeding them isn't the best thing but there's not a whole lot for them to eat where I live. Not a lot of nut trees. Most of them are pretty hungry and looking a little desperate come Fall. I wouldn't just feed them anything but raw nuts aren't that expensive that I can't afford a bag once in a while. Actually come November or December as soon as it starts to get chilly I usually buy a couple, take them down there and spend an hour or so handing them out just to make sure that "my" squirrels are properly fed for Winter. I also leave out bird food for the rabbits and the birds, make peanut butter and seed balls...

What can I say? I'm a total sucker when it comes to animals and they know it, laugh. Feeding a few squirrels and rabbits no big deal, it's not like I'm feeding bears or gators....

[debmalya]

I cannot see your photos on the thread, but I can see them in your album named "Today" ... J

Thanks. Is there a way to make the images appear in the thread?

[debmalya]

Eh, looks like he's adopted you, laugh. Chocolate is not particularly good for squirrels though. Might want to keep a bag of nuts around instead. I've had that happen though, a squirrel just climbing up my jeans to beg for food. Squirrels are technically wild animals but like pigeons they've been around humans for a very long time. Most of them have very little fear of humans at all from what I've seen. It doesn't take much to get them acting like that. I admit I feed the ones at our library sometimes. They come running right up to me when they see me, sit on the benches there and talk to me, take the nuts right from my hands. They're not really aggressive animals, just a little bit over friendly and curious.

I find that if I just let them know I don't want them on me say "Uhuh, no way, down!" in a firm tone of voice they get down. They're very smart animals, squirrels. I know that feeding them isn't the best thing but there's not a whole lot for them to eat where I live. Not a lot of nut trees. Most of them are pretty hungry and looking a little desperate come Fall. I wouldn't just feed them anything but raw nuts aren't that expensive that I can't afford a bag once in a while. Actually come November or December as soon as it starts to get chilly I usually buy a couple, take them down there and spend an hour or so handing them out just to make sure that "my" squirrels are properly fed for Winter. I also leave out bird food for the rabbits and the birds, make peanut butter and seed balls...

What can I say? I'm a total sucker when it comes to animals and they know it, laugh. Feeding a few squirrels and rabbits no big deal, it's not like I'm feeding bears or gators....

I am always afraid that by feeding them I will make them slowly dependent on humans. I would rather have them survive on their own. We have two big oak trees on our yard that produce tons of acorns for their consumption. However, I do clean up a lot of the acorns alongwith my fall cleanup.

[crewl1]

Right click, copy image location and use the 'insert image' control.


Nice shots!

[photolady95]

I can't see the photo here either. Did you copy the "img" tag and paste in this thread?

debmalya, my squirrels still eat the acorns that fall from our 5 big oak trees. And they're not as friendly as Otis, or magKelly's squrrels. Basically feeding doesn't always turn them from wild animals to pets.

Edit: Larry beat me to it.

[debmalya]

Thanks!
I followed the sticky instructions for uploading pictures. Created an album and uploaded the photos there, then followed instruction #3 Post images from the User Photo Gallery.