Situtated in the middle of a pine forest, a town like Flagstaff is bound to have lots of wildlife.  Elk and deer roam freely.  An occasional mountain lion is scared away from someone’s back yard and the coyote enjoys a chicken out of someone’s coop every now and again.  Racoons steal the dog’s food and have been known to sneak in through an open doggie door.  And last summer, a porcupine decided to stake his claim to the oak in my back yard.

But the wild animals that I enjoy the most are those that frequent my back yard.  This little guy is  a hard worker.  He lives in our wood pile and ventures out to sun himself on a warm day, to eat, but most often to fill his pouch with seeds and acrorns before scurrying off to add them to his winter stockpile.  I call him a “he” but he could be “she” just as well.  It’s a ground squirrel.  He’s not much to look at when you compare him with the sleek beauty of the tree squirrels with their long bushy tails but his work ethics would put most of us to shame.   As the acorns fall from the big oaks, he becomes a vacuum cleaner, sucking them into his cheeks until they look like they could burst.  When it looks like he can hold no more, he runs off to his larder and quickly returns for more. 

A couple summers ago was “the summer of the fox.”  One evening in early June while Ron and I were getting our exercise walking on top of the mesa in the center of town, we heard an unusual bark.  On the edge of the mesa sat a grey fox, watching us from his perch on a rock.  After a few barks at us, he disappeared over the side of the hill.  The next evening he was back.  It got to be a regular occurance and we looked forward to seeing this newfound animal friend who seemed to be waiting for us…until one day he wasn’t there.  We’ve never seen him again and have often wondered if his friendly nature was his downfall.  It’s funny how attached you can become to an animal that you can never even get close to.