When it turned cold this fall I brought some hanging baskets in the garage to attempt to keep the plants in them alive through the winter.  The baskets are wire and lined with thick moss that holds the soil and plants.  On warm sunny days my husband puts them out in the yard and waters them.  One day he and I were in the yard talking to a neighbor when a little brown squirrel went running by with something large and unusual in its mouth.  A couple of days later when moving the baskets back inside before a cold night I noticed one of them had absolutely no moss left.  And I realized that the little brown squirrel had probably stolen it to line his nest!

Yesterday when I pulled my car into the driveway I noticed a little brown squirrel wrestling fiercely with a large chunk of moss in one of the baskets sitting in the yard - obviously not the basket he'd already stripped of its moss!  He was so determined to have that piece of moss that my sitting in a running car 5 feet from him didn't deter him at all.  The piece of moss had several strands wrapped around something and he was moving all around the basket pulling from every direction.  I pulled my car in the garage and told my husband about the squirrel.  We watched for a few minutes as he tried and tried to get that piece of moss free.

I decided to help.  I walked slowly up to where the squirrel was working, talking kindly to him about why he didn't need to be afraid of me, and telling him I would help him get his moss.  I thought he probably needed it to reinforce his nest since his little brown squirrel intuition had told him it was going to be a very cold night.  He kept struggling with the moss, holding it tightly in his mouth and I got less than three feet from him before he got still - with the moss still in his mouth.   

My husband and I were concerned that he was somehow attached to the moss or the chain that hangs the basket and we were pondering just how we were going to get him free from that trap.  I pictured myself gently petting him while I wrangled his little mouth free from whatever was holding it captive.  I was blocking the fact that he was wild and probably would have mangled me with his claws and teeth if I had attempted such a daring act... 

But he wasn't trapped.  Our eyes met as I got closer. And as I bent down toward the basket he let go of the moss and ran up the oak tree, out on a limb, jumped on the neighbor's roof and disappeared.  He was just determined to have the moss.  He needed it.  It was a necessary thing for his security and safety and comfort.  And he wanted it.  And I wanted him to have it.

I stooped down and freed the piece of moss from the chain it was wound around.  And I proceeded to pull all of the moss out of the basket and lay it loosely on top of the soil, leaving it free and ready for the taking for whenever the little squirrel decided to come back for it.  I watched through the window for a while hoping to see the surprise and wonder and delight on his cute little face when he discovered all of that moss ready for him to take for his own.  But he didn't come back.  And later my husband put the baskets in the garage to protect them from the cold, leaving the mound of moss on the ground. 

All of the moss was still there this morning.  I am pretty sure the squirrel will come back today to get it.  I wonder what will be going through his furry little mind when he realizes that, although he was forced to let go of the moss he wanted so badly, it was freely given to him for the taking.  And not only that one piece, but all of it was there for him.  He was given more moss than he had ever dreamed he would have.  What a blessed little squirrel.

Letting go of the moss,
Amy