Here we have one of our little neighbors sunbathing on his wood pile yesterday morning when the temperature was 23 degrees (F) and the windchill 14. Our Red Squirrels seem to be flourishing this winter, perhaps because the winter has been mild, so far.
Seeing this healthy scamp yesterday conjured the folklore fable of “The Squirrel and the Grasshopper” about the virtue of planning ahead (a later variant of Aesop’s “The Grasshopper and the Ant”):
“The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building and improving his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
“The grasshopper thinks he’s a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
“Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.”
(Brooklin, Maine)