So, I have this squirrel, Dot, that I’ve been feeding every day for like the last four years. She’s super friendly and comes to my back door/kitchen window, every single day.

In any case, the other day, I was at the Farmer’s Market, and I bought some potted herbs. I brought them home and repotted them in some old ceramic pots that I bought the first year I was teaching from a student pottery sale.

Stupidly, I put them on the windowsill where Dot comes to visit. So, yesterday, my partner and I were working in the house and we heard this weird noise. He went out to investigate, and said “There’s a very guilty looking squirrel at our back door. She just knocked over one of your pots.” So I went out, and Dot was there, and one of my little pots was smashed on the ground. I let out this crazy aggrieved moan, and she looked at me really strangely. I picked up all the little pieces and took them inside, washed them, and glued it all back together.

So, this morning, I go out, and there are all these old muddy nuts all over by the back door. I watched, and Dot was out, digging in our yard, bringing one at a time to the door… which is kind of a big deal, because squirrels hide all summer to survive the winter, so it’s really out of season that she’d be digging them up now.

In any case, I went out and was like “Dot! Thank you!” And she literally did a little jump up on to the windowsill and I said a genuine thank you to her, collected the nuts, and gave her the usual daily ration. She took off, and I was like… that was the best part of my day!