Maybe I shouldn’t have run away and joined the circus…
As amazing as it is that squirrels can run and jump at full speed through and even between trees without ever needing a safety net… their walking on cable and telephone wires is even more brazen and daring in my opinion. After all, a tree branch is a heck of a lot thicker than those skinny wires strung up to poles. Squirrels regularly traverse these lines every day like it were nothing… and they don’t need one of those silly balancing poles like human acrobats do. It’s just something they were born with the talent to pull off, and no matter how much of a hurry they’re in, you never see these squirrels fall while moving across….
#^!@(#&* jinx!!!
Whoa, easy there, buddy! Don’t worry, he didn’t really fall. And this week’s Saturday Squirrel will survive to walk the utility pole tightrope again someday…
Have a great weekend everyone! And don’t forget that this Tuesday is the 20th annual National Squirrel Appreciation Day! Go out and thank your local squirrels for all they do to make you smile!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I always think “tightrope walker” when I see them on wires. Our development has all underground utilities including phone lines so I don’t see them here but occasionally when we’re up at the main road at the traffic light I see them up on those wires watching the traffic go by or using them to cross the highway. Natural acrobats!
Pam
There have been a few times when I’m driving down the road that I’ll see them literally running on a wire over the street. It’s one of the rare occasions I wish I actually had a smartphone, because it would be a heck of a photo opportunity!
I feel like there’s a squirrel circus… or Cirque de Soleil… we humans no nothing about, and and that makes me sad.
At least they give a few public performances for free! But no popcorn for the audience…
They are acrobats, real ones. Here was a cable just out of my window, and I watched them daily. One day the telephone company came and took that important cable away. We have on this area every year less and less squirrels, even though here is a forest area.
The phone company never consults the squirrels when they ruin their infrastructure like that. How would we like it if squirrels decided to just rip up our roads for their own selfish reasons?
Squirrels are such goofs. I see them hopping across tree branches like it’s no big deal. Guess for them it isn’t. So they have a day of their own? But of course they do…
Everyone has a day of their own now in this social media era. But the squirrels were pioneers in the silly holiday trend. National Squirrel Appreciation Day has been around since 2001! Don’t forget to get your squirrels a card, and maybe a heart shaped box full of nuts…
I always get scared when they run across wires over busy four lane highways. They always make it, though.
My heart stops when I see them leap between trees way, way, way off the ground. They are fearless, and never miss a step!
Squirrel or no, I’d still be happier if he had a safety net.
There is a bobcat on the ground waiting to catch him in his soft, bouncy mouth if he falls. I’m sure he’ll be fine….
Thanks for the heads up (a bad thing perhaps if one is defying gravity) about National Squirrel Appreciation Day. I’ll be appreciating any squirrels I espy, IF I can espy any at all. Up here either the predators (man or nature) kill and/or eat those furry little critters before one can properly worship them. It’s sad.
I hope they all get indigestion and miss the whole day on the can…
Not only are they acrobatic, but they view cables as their aerial version of chewing gum. I don’t know how many times our “lights out” have been because squirrels chewed through the cable. Mmm, yum. Nothing like a nice high power cable, eh? Now THAT is daring!
I guess the cable won’t shock them… and even with power lines, I think you’re ok so long as you aren’t touching two at the same time. Maybe the squirrels know something that we don’t. I’ll have to try wire munching some time…
It’s amazing how they do that. We have several tree branches outside our window and it’s so interesting to watch them run back and forth so high above the ground!
Heck, they build their nests in trees directly above busy streets. They’re crazy critters who apparently weeded out all of the klutzes a long time ago thanks to Mr. Darwin…
I have seen a couple of squirrels dash a bit too fast across power and cable lines and fall. No ‘real’ damage done, mostly some “wow that last step was a killer” look by the poor creature.
I’ve never seen one fall from lines, but one surprised me a long time ago by falling out of a tree. Got right back up and at ’em like nothing happened at all…
Resilient little buggers.
I just don’t know how they do it. I can kind of see them running up and down things made of wood because they can sink their claws into it. But metal? I don’t know how they hold on to that so well!
Little magnets in their paw pads!
Seems like a reasonable explanation to me!