Talk about a Labor Day

I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. Of course, if it was another weekend like the one I just had, I might spend the week in bed.

I didn't really get a darn thing done, though. Every time I started in on one of my jobs:
"Honey, I want to trim this tree, can you come and take a look?"
"Mom, is 'better' an adjective or adverb in this sentence?"
"Honey, I trimmed one branch, can you come and take a look?"
"Mom, I need to make lunch for my science experiment."
"Honey, can you get me some Gatorade?"
"Mom?"
"Honey?"
"Mom?"
"Honey?"
You get the picture.

But, last evening, just before sunset, we witnessed the most incredible instance of labor. My mother had come for dinner, and as Peach and I stood in the driveway saying "goodbye," a squirrel ran, just a few feet away from me, from the front side yard into the neighbor's yard. This is a little unusual in and of itself (not because we don't have squirrels -- we have loads -- but because she ran so close to us), but the fact that she had a baby squirrel in her mouth made it fairly incredible.

Well, during Doug's tree-trimming, he apparently freaked out a poor little mama squirrel when he trimmed some branches from her tree. So, she decided at dusk that her babies must be moved, from the little Bradford Pear in the tree lawn to a hole in the neighbor's Pin Oak about 35 feet up the tree. (Yikes!)

I ran in the house to get my camera (of course I did) and Peach grabbed her daddy, and the three of us sat on the front porch watching mama squirrel run back and forth two more times from the Pin Oak to the Bradford Pear with a baby in her mouth each time. Unbelievable.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if human mothers had to work as hard as animal mothers, there'd be a lot more abandoned babies out there. But, this little squirrel mama was dogged and determined. She made me feel mightly mortal, how dare I complain after my day?

Here she is running up the Bradford Pear.

And here she is with one little baby in her mouth. She has about 40 yards to cover between nests.

And another. These pictures aren't that great -- she was moving, and I didn't want her to know I was there, lest she really freak out and put the baby down, although after watching her go through this whole thing, I think she'd do anything for these babies.

Can you see her on the left side of the trunk on the right of the picture -- toward the top? She's about 15 feet up here -- about 20 more to go.

Can you see her with her head sticking out of the hole?

And here she is after the last trip -- maybe checking to make sure she didn't leave anyone behind?

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