The Goodbye Squirrel
The Goodbye Squirrel, originally uploaded by graphicartepsi.
This little fellow was acting strangely, not scolding or chattering, not doing more than peering at me around the base of the tree. I checked on him several times, but he never responded as wild things should...I wondered if my cousins had hand fed him, but that's not really their character, and it seemed unlikely.
I painted the watercolor of the colorful birdhouse in my journal, stopping to check on the quiet little squirrel several times until finally I got caught up in my work.
When I looked again, he had died as quietly as he had observed me, lying down beneath the fern where I sketched him, and departing. It was a strange feeling to have been in the presence of death, apparently natural, and silent.