Scared Squirrel
Bob McNally 10.02.16
Once while bowhunting deer in Missouri, I watched a large fox squirrel scamper across the forest floor directly below my tree stand. I watched in fascinated as the oversize squirrel hopped onto the tree trunk to which my stand was attached and begin to climb.
Leaning well out of my tree, I saw the rodent climb higher and higher until he was just a few feet beneath my stand. I sat back, quiet and still in complete head-to-toe camouflage, including face mask and gloves. I could hear the squirrel nails biting tree bark as he inched higher and higher until he was level with my head, but out of sight around the oak.
I turned my face toward the squirrel claw scratching, and soon the animal stuck his head out from behind the tree, literally inches from my face. Only my eyes were exposed from the mesh camo face mask, so the squirrel couldn’t tell what exactly he was looking at until I yelled, “Booooo!!”
If an animal can have a facial expression, that squirrel exhibited total, complete terror. His eyes bugged out, his legs went rigid, and his claws detached from the tree trunk.
He dropped in a flash, falling to the ground like an oversize walnut, and hit the ground running more like a road runner than a tree rat. I watched him scamper out of sight, some 100 yards away, and for all I know he didn’t stop until he was well east of the Mississippi River.
