The Keepville Church Pastor: Squirrel Problems?

Call 1-800-Kenton-Gurnee.

After sneaking up on another black squirrel and not being able to get a shot we kept sneaking through Squirrel Paradise. Another gray squirrel hopped up in front of us and quickly made his way through a top and spooked a deer that snorted and ran off. As it ran it flushed a blue heron of the bank of Conneaut creek that flapped its way and circled around till it landed safely upstream a couple hundred yards. OK we have seen all we are going to see. Kenton can't get the 12 gauge up and get ready for a shot in time. I was thinking about all of the school work waiting back on my desk, I was thinking about the Sunday morning message, I was thinking about the 1/2 mile walk out of the woods and the drive home, I was thinking about everything and frustrated with my little hunter.

"Kenton! I worked so hard to sneak you up onto 2 squirrels and never pulled the trigger after I hollered pull the trigger 20x's."

He looked up at me with eyes that showed his disappointment in not getting the shot and yet a little hurt from me being so impatient. Patience is what we learn hunting squirrels. He did not want to go home. I did. Then I didn't when I realized that my study could wait and be done whenever. The hunting could not wait, but must continue.

We walked another couple hundred feet and it was his hand squeezing mine hard. We hold hands and signal each other with a hard squeeze if we see a squirrel. This brought both of us to a frozen position with both our feet in mid air over a small log we were crossing. I could not see the squirrel as hard as I looked, but his face showed that one was hopping around just ahead. We decided that it was on the bank on the other side of the ravine. We took about 20 minutes to go about 1oo feet. No squirrel in site.

As we slowed eased up the other side of the ravine our hearts stopped. The squirrel was sitting on a branch 20' away. His tail was flipping and he was scolding the intruders of his land. I slowly handed Kenton the Mossberg 835 12 gauge. He slowly raised and squeezed the trigger. The squirrel ran away through the brush like he had just been shot at. (OK that was lame and corny) How could he have missed at such a close range? We went around the bend in the ravine to where the squirrel had disappeared. NO SQUIRREL.

Wow how does that happen? We looked around and started to leave when Kenton said "Dad you never leave an animal lay, we have to find him." "You missed he ran away!" Well long story short we retraced the shot pattern and went to where the squirrel was last seen. It was laying there under the leaves right where we had walked past several times. He picked it up and I snapped the first few pictures....

Then he grabbed my hand and said "There is another one." Actually there were two running around. He steadied the gun. I told him to wait just a little. It kept coming closer and the other one ran right up behind it. "