THE INNOCENCE OF THE YOUNG

I was sitting outside on the patio with herself sipping a cuppa when I saw this very young Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) running across the neighbor's lawn directly toward us. Little did I know that its sibling was already close by peering over the back stoop at us....maybe 3 feet away...good thing I had the camera close by. They both jumped up on the stoop and engaged in a little sibling rough-housing, eventually explored our covered grill and then kinda watched us for 20 minutes or so. We never made a move toward them but they both got close enough to sit on my shoe. Then they casually went back to their home tree in the neighbor's yard and never made a return trip. I'm guessing mom dressed them down for getting too close to humans. Too bad they have lost their innocence...or maybe the resident hawks or feral cats got them.