PEANUT

I love the fall when the leaves changes colors and the weather cools down a bit . It's the time when the wild life is in a frenzy to gather and store food for the winter months ahead.Our next door neighbor adored the birds and squirrels and often fed them with the feeders she had around her home.One day she asked if we seen Peanut around  because she hasn't seen her in awhile or so .I asked jokenly , who's Peanut  and what does it look like ?I knew very well who Peanut was she was just a squirrel to me but to my neighbor she was a friend of hers that lived up in the trees .This squirrel of hers was a little bit different from all the rest you just had to look at the ears and if there was a notch taken out of one them well that would be Peanut my neighbors dear friend.The life's span of a common squirrel is about 6 years and I've been seeing Peanut  roughly about 5 of those years and with our neighbor just moving into a nursing home we'll Peanut became our responsibility you could say.I did swear to our dear neighbor that we would feed her well because she just had babies this year.The fall went by so quickly and this winter was one of our worst when Snow fell almost every day and the temperatures dropped well below freezing all of those winters day.Sadly to say our neighbor didn't fear well that year and passed away right before Christmas day.I did manage to see peanut around February or so after the winter cold snap was through but she looked very raggedy but still hanging in there with all of her young ones at her side too.A little later that month while putting food out for our little tree friends  I didn't see Peanut at all  just the little ones she just had last spring and i wondered if her 6 years were up too.I know we cannot all live forever but its nice to share a little love with mother natures friends and Peanut  was one of them.......