One squirrel shows his clever counting ability

By Keith Ross | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, January 19, 2008

Welcome back to the bark side of life where winter resides in silver splendor while soft flakes of white velvet fall from the sky ... and the Rosswood choir is silent.

They lie in their outside kennels (stuffed with straw) munching away on a well deserved knuckle bone. Squirrels, rabbits, and blue jays take advantage of this momentary lapse in canine scrutiny and feed as fast as their little jaws will allow.

We just happen to have a tale from Judith Hensch of Campbell, that is our first entry in the “Logic vs. Instinct” contest. Here is her tale.

“My story about animals is about squirrels. My son lived in Minot, N.D., when he was in the Air Force and one day in the fall when we visited him, he wanted to show us the two squirrels he would give peanuts to. One was gray and the other one was black.

He lined many peanuts on the deck rail and we waited. The squirrels would come one at a time taking one peanut and run across the back yard with it. They kept this going on for a time; taking only one peanut at a time.

When the count was down to only two, the last squirrel came, took one peanut and ran away, stopped abruptly and looked back at the last peanut. He then turned around, went back and got the last peanut and ran off with the two peanuts.

We figured he knew the other squirrel was going to get the last one and beat him to it.

Another squirrel at my farm yard was always trying to get into my “squirrel proof” bird feeder. He never succeeded until one day after an ice storm, he could dig his claws into the ice on the feeder roof and hang upside down and get sunflower seeds.

It was so clever that I didn't even get mad at him. I would attribute these two incidents to reasoning. — Judy Hensch, Campbell”

Thanks a lot, Judy, for your tale of two conniving squirrels.

Well folks, do you have a tale that proves one way or another that animals reason? I can just see somebody reaching for a pen to scribble down a memory that just came back to them. Over the two years that I have been writing this column, there seems to be one story that triggers the memory of another one just by the telling of the one tale. Have fun with this contest, we will talk prizes at a later date.

If you have a group or organization that would like me to visit some time this year, call me at 218-495-2195 or email me at info@rosswoodkennels.com or write to me at Keith Alan Ross, Richville MN 56576. This information holds true for those of you who want to submit a tale also.

Keith Alan Ross writes from his home in New York Mills.