we do it better yeah we do it better

[pensnest]

There was a squirrel on the peanut cylinder yesterday morning. I growled at it and it went away, but I later witnessed it twice jump up to our dining room window sill, leap across to the dustbin lid baffle, and thence to the tasty fudz. It—I say this cautiously—*seems* to be the only one that does this. It has the most magnificent tail! The tail is almost as broad as its sturdy little body.

I wonder if squirrel tail size is in some way an indicator of intelligence? I've read—on the internet, so take it with as much salt as you please—that a cat's whisker count is an indication of smarts. A sixty-whisker cat is likely to be opening refrigerator doors and deconstructing the house defences. So maybe squirrel tail size can show us which squirrels are going to acquire more peanuts?

A different squirrel, thwarted by the baffle, ran off and investigated the squirrel food holder (it was empty). As that one had a squitty little tail, my hypothesis is probably wrong. I mean, it was a smart thing to do, really!

*

My chorus just had a coaching weekend. We had a performance coach to help us work on our convention numbers, and it was a surprisingly moving experience. I teared up at least three times. Some of us went to the Belgian Monk for dinner afterwards, and I enjoyed a magnificent roast pork belly with serious crackling, plus a couple of raspberry beers.

On Sunday, we had a consolidation-and-costume session, where we all got to see what everyone else is wearing. We were all so worn out from Saturday that we got to go home a couple of hours earlier than planned!

Comments

[turlough]

I suspect it's not that easy, sadly enough. I mean, what advantage does a magnificent tail give a squirrel that makes it worth investing so much energy into growing it? Maybe it's different for different individuals which would mean that BOTH squirrels you saw are intelligent, just in different ways.

Your Monk dinner sounds absolutely delicious!