Squirrels have taken up carving

Our squirrels have been busy, but I doubt they’ll have their creative project done by Halloween.

Like most folks, we have more squirrels than we know what to do with.

Unless there’s a hawk in the neighborhood, we can usually count several in our backyard at any given moment.

The spillage from the bird feeders attracts them, and we’re surrounded by old trees, including a majestic oak next door that produces more than its share of acorns.

But with all those nuts and seeds to eat, why must they attack our pumpkin?

It’s a harmless pumpkin; most gourds fall into that category.

We bought it at the Redkey Fall Festival a few weeks back. There had been other pumpkin-purchasing opportunities this fall, but I insisted on a good old Jay County pumpkin.

While it’s not on the scale of the ones exhibited at Pennville, it’s a pretty decent representative of its type.

And, most importantly, it’s not a fake one, something made of foam and plastic.

Nope, ours has to be organic and real.

It also, apparently, has to be delicious.

Within a couple of days on the front porch, the pumpkin showed evidence of squirrel nibbling.

While we hadn’t planned on making a jack-o-lantern, the squirrels apparently decided to carve something on their own.

So far, it looks pretty random. Maybe it’s an abstract expressionist piece, like a painting that hangs in my office that has most folks scratching their heads. Maybe it’s not really supposed to look like anything in particular.

But I keep holding out hope.

After all, as I write this, Halloween is still a week away.

If the squirrels got their act together, maybe they could discipline themselves into nibbling a real face on the pumpkin. It wouldn’t take much: A mouth, a nose, a couple of eyes.

So far, we have something that might pass for a mouth and maybe something that could be an ear or maybe a map of Idaho.

Then again, this could be some sort of performance art on the part of the squirrels.

Maybe they’re not into creating a meaningful piece within the Halloween tradition.

Maybe they’re working on some conceptual piece that will make a statement about something those of us who are not squirrels can’t fully grasp. 

Maybe their nibbling is some sort of performance art.

Maybe they’ve figured out that a few weeks after Halloween the pumpkin’s going to be tossed onto the compost heap behind the garage.

Or maybe not.

After all, it’s squirrels we’re talking about.