The minute I typed the title for today’s blog, I thought to myself, this is way too optimistic. Spring in the Midwest usually doesn’t begin until somewhere between late April and July. We’ve been known to have blizzards in May. However, this year the snow cover has dwindled to almost nil and grass is beginning to turn from brown to green. I will therefore maintain my Pollyanna persona and say with assurance that spring has definitely sprung. There are other signs too – like the returning squirrels looking for remnants of their autumn hidings.
Feral cats have shown themselves again. The cat we call, “Crabby” has shown herself once more. I thought the winter had done her in. She’s apparently the top cat in the neighborhood, having produced the most kittens so she has a right to be crabby. When she didn’t show up for so long I thought the freezing cold spell of February deposed her from her Queendom. She appeared a few days ago and paraded through our yard as if to say, “I’m back,” just like Jack Nicholson might. The rest of the menagerie is showing no shame in their attempts at mating – leaving nothing to the imagination.
Birds are showing up in flocks when the cats are in hiding. A pair of cardinals have been year round visitors to the feeders. They’ve been joined by a few newcomers like purple finch, downy woodpeckers and chickadees galore. We’ve finally discovered a formula for the birds that doesn’t appeal to the squirrels. So far the tree rats have not been fond of this new stuff.
Every spring I’m reminded of my encounter with a pellet gun and a pesky little squirrel who insisted on raiding the bird feeder daily. I had enough and decided to take brazen action, so I loaded Paul’s pellet gun, put on my Anne Oakley hat and perched myself on the deck facing the bird feeder, I took aim at the intruder and my finger got caught in the spring mechanism. My screams of pain went unheeded as said squirrel continued to devour the seed. I took aim again. The squirrel did a most dramatic swan dive off the feeder and fell flat on the ground. I was mortified. I had never killed a living thing, other than stepping an ant or swatting a fly until that moment. My conscience kicked in as I saw his lifeless little body. I thought of his surviving family of baby squirrels and a wife somewhere. My heart strings were tugging.
In the matter of two seconds, that critter was up and ran into the woods. That night I had one of my vivid dreams. I was seated on top of the bird feeder as thousands of squirrels circled below with pellet guns in paws. I woke in a cold sweat and never touched a firearm again.
These days, I’ve become more tolerant. I now enjoy watching them trying to work their way up the pole and helping themselves to food not intended for them. Their acrobatic antics are amazing. God has a way of amusing us through the creation of all his wildlife creatures. Spring might be here or we may get dumped on with another snowfall, but the signs are showing and I’m not giving up this time.
atimetoshare.me 
Great story – I thought I was into a novel you were writing…😎👍
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The novel is sitting on the back burner for now. Waiting for motivation to edit again.
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Spring?? I don’t think so. We still have a good deal of ground covered in white, but it is diminishing quickly. We have squirrels all winter. I love looking out the window and racing from one stash to another; now our dog not so much.
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We still have some snow but the sun is more powerful now. It won’t be long. I feel the need for vitamin D
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This was seen outside my apartment . Someone that lived here planted it.
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We seem to have skipped right over spring and gone right into summer, here. About three weeks ago we had highs in the single digits and lows below zero. Yesterday our high was 80. There’s no telling what today will be.
I’m glad the squirrel lived. I’m like you, flies and spiders are about all I want to kill. Even then, I feel bad.
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“Spring comes somewhere between late April and July.” Wow! That brings back memories of Germany. We used to say that there are two weeks of “summer” in Germany. One week was in April – two pagan holidays in the same week celebrating different aspects of Spring, but for some weird reason the sun will come out that week and it is warm, then the clouds return a week later and you could have frost for weeks afterward. But our last year there, in 1980, was after Mt. St. Helens erupted. The US was experiencing record hot temperatures and in Germany, it did not get hotter than 55F until the day in late July when we went to the airport to return to the US, up to about 65F and we were boiling it was so hot. It was 99F at McGuire Airforce base at midnight when we came through ‘customs.’ Customs meaning an Air Force sergeant in a hanger with a stamp to stamp our passports upon getting off the plane. We thought we were in an oven, and then our car had no A/C as we had no need for it in Germany. And as for squirrels, they are resilient.
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I may be exaggerating a bit, but it seems we often only have a few days of spring and fall. We are a state of extremes in many ways.
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As you might remember, I went to your area in July two years ago for a wedding and it was cooler when we went to visit the grandchildren in Tennessee. I can attest that MN can get scorching hot, even if so briefly.
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Amusing. Exaggerating a bit often makes a normal incident a “tale to be told” when it is written by a wordcrafter like you. Hope spring comes soon. It seems to be here in our town.
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Thanks for the sweet compliment. Writing is much like acting. If we were like everyone else no one would be interested. I guess imagination allows a little truth stretching.
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Such a touching post! Sometimes when we think spring has finally sprung, our car slides into a new snowbank. I can remember teaching on the last day of school long ago when winter played a late April Fool’s joke. We awoke to a couple inches of fresh, wet snow.
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I remember a week in May some twenty years ago when we experienced, high temps, humidity, tornado warnings, thunder storms and snow. It wasn’t an April fool’s joke, but an amazing array of God’s hand in the weather.
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Wow! That’s quite a smorgasbord of weather for a single week. It reminds me that our Creator is in control.
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