Wishes....

If wishes were horse, beggars would ride...or so they say. Well, we spotted this caterpillar yesterday and I told Roger I was tempted to get a jar or something to put him in, but since I didn't know what he was...didn't know what to feed him, I didn't. And the fact is, I am not sure he was even hungry....he seemed to be on a hunt.
Finally late yesterday evening I googled 'bright green caterpillar', seen a photo that matched this one right away, and it led me to finding that it is a Polyphemus Moth...take a look at what he becomes. So I have been wishing I had captured it; but in ways I am glad I didn't cause I think it was on the hunt to find a place to spin its cocoon...so I might have really interfered with its life cycle.

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Now, for something I cannot quite believe myself. I don't suppose any of you have noticed that I have not mentioned Mama Squirrel in quite a while. I have not seen her in at least two months....I really had given up on her still being alive. Or maybe not totally, because I sure have been looking for her....even if she had been in the cottonwoods across the street she is hard to see in them.

But with us being outside and talking almost everyday, it has been very odd for her to not come. Used to be I would set outside to talk on the phone, or just Roger and I sitting out back and we would look up and there she would be. So with him being outside working on the old garage almost every day, it was really starting to hit home that this time she was really gone.

Lo and behold, this afternoon a buddy of Roger's was over and we were sitting on the front porch talking, and I glanced towards the street and there ran a squirrel...I yelled, "Mama Squirrel, is that you?" never really expecting a reaction. It put on the brakes, stopped, and I think I yelled 'Mama' again and it gave me that look...

I ran inside to get nuts, and Roger kept talking to her...I came outside, all the time thinking it doesn't even look like her...it can't be her...but as I got closer I could see that it was her...I walked right up to her and bent down and gave her a nut, and then told her to come on and I went to the back...she followed along behind and I put her 'lunch' on Roger's trailer...and I got her a bowl of water. She used to all the time drink from Shelby's water dish out back so I though she might appreciate some fresh water.

Every time I think about it, I just cannot believe it was her...she is SO skinny...I have never seen her so little. She was/is almost skin and bones. I know summers have really bothered her the past two summers, but she never looked near like this.

But back to me yelling at her, Roger's friend is a new friend and has never seen her and even though I think we told him about her, I don't think it sunk in...most of Roger's buddies have either seen her or at least seen her pictures. But today when I yelled, I felt like his friend about jumped out of his skin....then proceeded to think we were both probably a little bit crazy. Now he didn't say anything, but I just got that feeling..till he seen her and her reaction.

And you know, I told Roger we should have known it was her...what other squirrel stops and looks at us when we yell 'Mama Squirrel!'

And I do wish I had a picture of her, but if you compared it to the others, you wouldn't believe it was her anyway.