My friend Cathy is creative, compassionate and, like a lot of us these days, confined. As a result, she’s gone a little squirrelly.
She and her occasionally ornery friend Newman have provided all of us with a delightful distraction from all the angst 2020 has wrought.
“This is Newman,” she posted one day. “He is really mad today, I stuffed steel wool in the hole in our house he has chewed and put a squirrel cone on the feeders. He has been thwarted today. I hear him out there yelling.”
Truthfully, Newman could have been any one of us that day, with his COVID hair sticking up all over the place and his absolute fury so very evident.
Cathy extended a peace offering in the way of a few peanuts and Newman, still miffed but also a little hungry, swallowed his pride and a few peanuts and scurried his stuffed-cheek self away.
Sensing a possibility for a genuine reconciliation, Cathy upped the ante. She built Newman his own picnic table and served him his peanuts on it. Obviously.
Newman, dignity restored, dined in rightful splendor for a few days, until the neighborhood bully showed up, an arrogant blue jay, and tried to shove poor Newman aside. They bickered a bit and then seemed to come to a detente. In any case, Newman emerged unscathed.
Having witnessed the ugly scene, Cathy a gifted poor Newman with a shopping cart to collect his nuts and the squirrel happily obliged.
In the ensuing days, she provided him various thematic and amusing backdrops, and a few less contentious companions, including Spongebob and Barbie.
Recently, Newman, feisty champion of the hood, left Cathy another surprise and one that only increased that character’s lore.
Turns out, Newman might not be a boar afterall, she could be a sow and a mother at that!
Welcome to the world, Baby Newman.
We can’t wait to watch you grow.
(You can follow Newman on Instagram at Newmanthesquirrel). In the meantime, here are some pictures to make your Wednesday a little more fun.
I want to heart this.
How cute!! Love the pics especially the picnic table ones!!