{"id":3446,"date":"2011-09-12T17:10:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-12T21:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/?p=3446"},"modified":"2011-09-12T18:19:14","modified_gmt":"2011-09-12T22:19:14","slug":"bring-on-the-squirrels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/bring-on-the-squirrels\/","title":{"rendered":"Bring on the Squirrels!!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Editors Note: It&#8217;s been a while since we&#8217;ve heard from our buddy Zeuss Catt from Boston. With fall just around the corner, it got me to thinking of when I used to live in Upstate New York &#8211; it was right around this time that we would start to see squirrels getting ready for the upcoming winter. I happen to love squirrels, so you can imagine how happy I was when Zeuss decided to share this story about his own fascination with this creature.<\/p>\n<h4>Fence Walking<br \/>\nby Zeuss<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3447\" title=\"Zeuss1\" src=\"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss1.jpg 460w, https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss1-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been studying squirrels lately, and their climbing habits. These small, spastic creatures have some impressive skills when it comes to avoiding a much smarter, handsome animal. Squirrels are able to climb anything, it seems, which facilitates their escape from yours truly. Fences, trees, houses, recycling bins&#8230; you name it, and a squirrel has climbed it.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3448\" title=\"Zeuss2\" src=\"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss2.jpg 460w, https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss2-300x232.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3449\" title=\"Zeuss3\" src=\"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"292\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss3.jpg 460w, https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss3-300x190.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3450\" title=\"Zeuss4\" src=\"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss4.jpg 460w, https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss4-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been able to master climbing to some extent, but &#8220;there&#8217;s always room for improvement&#8221;. (Shout out to Morris the Cat, who coined that inspirational ditty.) Indoors, there&#8217;s nothing that I haven&#8217;t either climbed or jumped to the top of. Doors, shelves, appliances, furniture, curtain rods&#8230; all conquered, and conquered a second time. I&#8217;ve even conquered window-screen climbing, but I did that from the inside.<\/p>\n<p>So, inspired by the squirrel, I looked outdoors for my next challenge. And I found it.<\/p>\n<p>Fence-walking.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3453\" title=\"Zeuss5\" src=\"http:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss5.jpg 460w, https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/Zeuss5-300x180.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I began by practicing simply standing on the fence. This was tricky, but I was able to fit all four paws comfortably on the top of the fence so that I held my balance. I call this form of balancing &#8220;bird position&#8221;. Yes, I know- birds only have two legs.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"420\" height=\"345\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/TZrutPu3IiQ?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>Once balance was established, I began practicing walking. At first, I thought it was going to be easy. I was able to begin walking from bird position, and made my way over towards the house with little difficulty.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"420\" height=\"345\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/65PogbAqEu8?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n<p>After a short break, I was turned around and walking in the other direction. I used careful steps and great concentration (did I mention that it was drizzling out?) to walk the 20ft. length of fence along the driveway. After a quick stop at the corner of the driveway, I continued the trek along the front sidewalk-side. All was going well, until I got distracted.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"420\" height=\"345\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/h2MHCeJfpvE?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n<p>I couldn&#8217;t resist turning around to look at the car as it approached from my hindquarters, and that threw my balance off. I shook off disappointment, hopped right back up where I fell off, and continued on towards the gate. I wasn&#8217;t going to let a car distract me a second time!<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"420\" height=\"345\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/6nIbguR5TjQ?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n<p>That time, my slip had nothing to do with the car! It was drizzling out, and my paw slipped!<\/p>\n<p>Truth is, fence-walking isn&#8217;t as easy as squirrels make it look. Although next time, I&#8217;m practicing on a dry day.<\/p>\n<p>PS Belated birthday shout out to my dad Zee. He turned the big 06 earlier this week. Happy BDay, old cat!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Editors Note: It&#8217;s been a while since we&#8217;ve heard from our buddy Zeuss Catt from Boston. With fall just around the corner, it got me to thinking of when I used to live in Upstate New York &#8211; it was right around this time that we would start to see squirrels getting ready for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1101],"tags":[1265,105,104,103,5,16],"class_list":["post-3446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zeuss-catt","tag-cats","tag-climbing","tag-fences","tag-squirrels","tag-zee","tag-zeuss-catt"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3446"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3471,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3446\/revisions\/3471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeezoey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}