When a curious squirrel with a HUGE passion for walnuts spots a big bowl of his favorite treat, he naturally wants them and no puny little window screen is going to stop him!
Pete slides through a hole in the screen , lands on the kitchen table and helps himself to a walnut or two or five or seven.
He is so busy crunching and munching that he doesn’t notice a five-year-old boy sneaking up on him.
Pete panics!
He quickly discovers that getting out of the house isn’t nearly as easy as getting in and Pete’s midday snack turns into a rollicking whirlwind of hilarious chaos!
I met Pete a few years ago when I was living in Los Angeles. Every morning, I’d sit outside on the patio with a cup of coffee. And every morning, like clockwork, a curious little squirrel would show up to keep me company.
At first, he watched from the safety of a tree branch. But as the days turned into weeks, he grew bolder, inching his way farther and farther down the trunk until one morning, I happened to bring a walnut outside.
Well, that changed everything.
The moment he spotted it, he leapt onto the table. We sat there quietly, looking into each other’s eyes. I smiled, said hello, and asked what I should call him.
After a thoughtful little pause, the answer came to me.
Pete.
And so began a friendship built on trust, curiosity, and a mutual appreciation for walnuts. Although I suspect Pete’s appreciation ran a little deeper than mine.
Pete knew I lived on the other side of the sliding glass door. He’d often watch me cooking in the kitchen, probably wondering what other goodies I was keeping in there.
One day, I left the door open by mistake, and Pete decided to invite himself in.
He sauntered over to the cabinet where I kept treats. Naturally, I figured he was looking for a walnut, so I opened the cabinet and gave him one.
Nice, right?
Big mistake.
Fast-forward a few weeks.
I came home early one afternoon, opened the front door, and stopped dead in my tracks.
There were walnuts in every corner of the house.
Every. Single. Corner.
Someone had been busy. And I had a pretty good idea who that someone was.
Had Pete decided my house was his personal pantry or was he stocking up for winter? What ever it was there was one vitally important question.
How on earth did he get in?
The answer came one evening while I was cooking dinner.
Things were getting a little smoky in the kitchen, so I switched on the exhaust fan.
KABOOM!
The fan blade came flying out of its housing, followed by a shower of debris!
Once I recovered from the shock, I discovered what had happened.
Pete, that furry little walnut-crazed engineer, had chewed his way through the exhaust screen on the roof, squeezed down an impossibly narrow duct, and gnawed through a plastic fan blade.
All for a walnut. Well, walnuts. A whole 25 pound bag of them
Looking back, I realize Pete was quite a character. Good-hearted, curious, remarkably clever, and a problem solver who didn’t believe in taking no for an answer. Once he set his mind on something, there was no stopping him.
Especially when walnuts were involved.
And that’s how a real squirrel named Pete found his way into my house, my heart, and eventually, a children’s book.
Want to get to know Pete a little better? Visit Pete’s website.
