Published: March 13, 2008 09:24 pm            

Stan Champer: Awaiting spring and a friend: 3/14/08

Even before that last snow hit, the back yard was coming alive. Along the fence line, some sort of flowers were showing bright yellow buds in three or four spots, and little pods of leaves were appearing on the apple bush.

I’m sure there’s a more accurate way of explaining this plant life, but it’s not one of my strong suits. Nine times out of 10, I’d fail miserably trying to distinguish a flower from a weed.

We didn’t have a course in botany when I was in school. If we talked about plant life in one of the general science classes, it must have been on one of my Ferris Bueller days.

I didn’t have many of those, but I don’t know how else to account for my plant knowledge shortcomings, or my difficulty spelling certain types of foods. Vegetables drive me bananas.

In any event, I don’t get confused about the signs of spring, and those yellow do-whichies along the fence line are irrefutable evidence that the good earth’s juices are beginning to stir.

So I’m wondering just how long it’ll be before the little four-legged neighbor we call Stubby comes out to play. I’m sure he’s somewhere in the neighborhood because he ventured out briefly on a couple of unseasonably warm days awhile back.

We haven’t mentioned it, but I know my daughter has been wondering the same thing. On two or three occasions, I’ve noticed her staring out the kitchen window and just knew she was looking for him.

If he shows again this year, it’ll be his third year as one of the backyard regulars. Actually, I think that’s where he was born, probably in the upper reaches of our maple tree.

Stubby is a squirrel. We spotted him that first summer of his big adventure in the world when it was unmistakable that he was quite young. The size difference, when older squirrels were close by, was obvious.

That summer, there were several young squirrels in the neighborhood, and they blended in with the general population in a way that you couldn’t know if you were seeing the same one two days running.

Such wasn’t the case with Stubby. Something had happened, either at the time of his birth or in an accident very early in life, that left him with a tail two-thirds shorter that what it should have been.

My daughter and I were hooked right from the beginning. We’d signal to one another if one of us saw him coming down the maple tree and we’d watch for long periods as he scampered about the yard.

Somewhere along the way, we began calling him Stubby.

I’ve noticed some things about him over the last two summers, one being that he seems to be a bit of a loner. When other squirrels are chasing one another around the base of the tree, he’s off to himself in another part of the yard, quietly going about the business of looking for food.

He doesn’t seem to have quite the dexterity of the others. He’s a little more cautious going up that tree, and you won’t find him venturing out onto branches that he’s not quite sure about.

These are his accommodations, I suppose, for his abbreviated tail.

My daughter and I have concluded, however, that in spite of all of this, Stubby has a spirit that sets him apart and a curiosity that makes him truly special.

How many times have we looked out the window to find him sitting upright and staring in at the kitchen? How many times, while we were sitting on the breezeway, has he wandered up to us and stopped as if to say hello?

So I keep watching for those signs of spring — the deep blue sky, small green pods on the trees, little yellow buds shoving their way up out of the earth — and hoping that it won’t be long before I see Stubby again.

Sitting on the breezeway with my little buddy scampering in the yard would be a great way to start the season.

STAN CHAMPER can be reached at schamper@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2640.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.