I hope the squirrels believe in universal heath care

As I was waiting for the bus this morning I watched two squirrels play some weird hybrid of tag and hide and go seek. They would chase each other around the tree in a flurry of squirrel excitement. And then one of them would just freeze like a rock. And the other one would kind of freeze to, and then slowly poke its head around the tree, like its trying to sneak up on the other squirrel, and just as its about to catch site of the other one - BAM, they're off again. I could not stop laughing - and when I'm still not quite awake, that is a decent feat. Also, have you ever paid attention to a squirrel running? They do this great bounding leap thing, sort of like an elegant gazelle bounding across the Savannah - only it looks kind of ridiculous because its a little squirrel running for no apparent reason across the lawn in front of my apartment building. It's a great way to start the morning.

Of course, despite their adorableness, squirrels have a well known nefarious side. When I was in high school the teenage boys in my ward (congregation) had some horrible luck with squirrel related attacks on camping trips. For example, one guy was sleeping in a mummy bag - which as many of you may know leaves you pretty much stuck in a really tight bag, with just your face sticking out - so when a squirrel decides to hop onto your face and maul you with its little squirrel claws, there really isn't much you can do besides scream. Most other reported squirrel attacks were fairly minor, just squirrels throwing things, or taking things, or staring menacingly. And honestly, I'm not entirely sure that any of these supposed events are actually 100% accurate - but that's not particularly important. What is important is that the youth in the ward developed some grand mythology of squirrels as conspiratorial masterminds, bent on world domination. A squirrel dashing away would be a spy reporting to the master group. Buried nuts were really secret communication devices. Forest fires are caused by intersquirrel conflict, as the various factions vied for control in a horrifyingly vicious serious of coups. Little things like that. For a group of teenagers, this was a high form of amusement.

Despite their possible nefarious plans, or possibly because of them, squirrels always make me smile. Also if they ever succeed, I think they would be benevolent overlords.