Brief Update on Jesse

"Who Would You Do" can be found here.

Wow, yesterday was very interesting.

Mom and I were heading out to go run errands on Sunday while light of my life was hanging out with the neighborhood "gang". It was a beautiful day and while mom was getting ready to leave, I decided to take Jesse out of his cage and let him get some fresh air outside.

In the past when I've gotten him out, I always gently toss him to the grass so he could get use to the outdoors in case he decides to ever leave us.

Normally when I do this, he immediately starts making a beeline for my feet so he can crawl up my body to perch on my shoulder like a little parrot (he appears to have some sort of identity crisis...where do you go to get squirrels some psychiatric help?).

This time, he just stood there for the longest time. I started to slowly approach him when he all of a sudden took off like a shot...in the opposite direction! He ran about 5 feet up the large oak tree we have in our yard.

He circled it a couple of times and then came to me and crawled up my arm. However, as we approached the house, he scampered down my body and crawled up another tree. ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP!!!

Now, I had been seeing signs of restlessness in him for the past two weeks or so. He had been doing flips in his cage and when I would take him out, he was all crazy like running up and down my body and scrabbling on my neck and shoulders. I knew something was going on with him but I couldn't figure out exactly what it was.

Now I know. He was wanting his freedom.

So, with a sad yet happy heart, I wished him good luck and we left to run our errands. Before we left, I brought his cage outside and left it open, just in case he decided to come back.

When we came back from running our errands, I immediately went to the tree where I saw him last and couldn't find him anywhere. I walked the perimeter of the yard looking for a squirrel carcass (we have several dogs that roam loosely between three houses and they're not exactly known as humane dogs when it comes to animals smaller than themselves) and looking up in trees but didn't see any signs of Jesse.

We went on with our evening. We ate dinner, watched Amazing Race and Cold Case. While light of my life was in her bath, mom took Max outside to let him do his bidness when she came running in saying "It's Jesse, he's back. Max has him treed."

Sure enough, when I went outside and went to the tree where Max was frantically circling, there he was. He was low down enough that I could reach him if I raised my arms up. He sniffed my fingers and let me pet him but wasn't exactly coming to me with open arms if you know what I mean.

I stood there for another couple of minutes and he eventually walked into my hands and up to my shoulder (see, there's that parrot complex again) and nuzzled my ear.

I got some fresh bedding for his cage and a new bowl of food. He greedily ate his sunflower seeds and then snuggled in for the night.

Light of my life had been very understanding when I told her that Jesse had decided to leave us (she got that panicked look in her eye when I told her I had to talk to her about Jesse....poor thing has experienced so many people and animals dying in the past year) but lit up when I told her that he came back!

I've decided that for now, I'm just going to keep him in the cage during the day while I'm at work and when I get home, I'll let him go and we'll see if he keeps coming back.

I'm not gonna force the issue either way. We'll just let it happen organically.

In other news, Max is fattening up quite nicely. I can still feel his ribs when I run my fingers down his sides, but his little belly is filling out and fat has settled in that area on his back to where his spine isn't so sharp. He's starting to get playful with us and is pretty much housebroken. We haven't had an accident in over a week. He's real good about letting us know when he wants/needs to go outside. Of course, any time the door is opened, he thinks its an invitation to go outside. But, that's all right. He comes right back when you call him, so it's not a problem yet.

Anything interesting happen to any of you this weekend?

Later,