A Bold Rodent

Yesterday I heard a story from a friend of mine. She was camping with her best friend from second grade and her father up north. Her father chose to sleep in a pup tent because he knew the two girls would be up all night chatting away.  In the middle of the night my friend was awoken to the voice of her father saying, "Hello there, bear." She and her friend peeked out the window of the tent to see her father in his underwear, holding a cast iron frying pan and speaking to a bear who stood upright. The bear walked forward and tripped on the guidelines of her father's tent.  Her father kept saying, "Hello there, bear." until the bear ambled away into the darkness.  She went on to say the next afternoon they went fishing. As they returned to the campsite they saw the bear walking upright through the woods.  Once at their campsite they found their cooler with teeth marks on it. The cooler was open. The bear had eaten a pound of butter, a pound of raw bacon, and a dozen eggs.  All the three campers had left to eat was the fish on their stringer.  So that was the story in my mind this morning as I left the Government Center in Anoka. Right outside the door to the seven story building are two trash cans. The lids had blown off the top of the trash cans. Inside the garbage trash can sat a grey squirrel feasting on unhealthy carbohydrates left in the trash.  So I had no choice but to say, "Hello there, squirrel." I stood only a yard away from the squirrel who was busily munching on Subway sandwich crumbs and MacDonald's French fries. The squirrel looked right at me without blinking a brown eye. I waited 15 seconds. The squirrel continued to eat. Such a bold rodent! So confident and self-assured was the squirrel that I just had to walk away in admiration.