Suicidal Squirrels

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought Spring was a time of rejoicing for the animal kingdom. You know... "Yay! We made it through the winter without starving to death, nothing ate us, or shot us!" (ok, yeah, and getting busy.) If that is the case, then WHY is it that the squirrels here have all become suddenly kamikaze-suicidal?

I was driving on a stretch of road that was rather slow (35 MPH) and I could actually see a couple of squirrels all lined up on the right side. They seemed to be whispering to one another, and pointing.

The closer I got, the more apprehensive I became. I actually slowed down a bit, as my nerves started to fire off warning signals. They kept looking at my car, then back at one another, making me feel decidedly uneasy. This did not look good. My foot hovered over the brake and I actually said out loud; "Oh, NO they wouldn't...."

Wanna bet?

When my car was just within NON-stopping distance the squirrel in the middle (I can only assume he drew the short straw, or this was some sort of twisted hazing event) came bolting out into the road right in front of me. I hit the brakes, but like I said, it was too close to just stop. However, as I passed by (I could have sworn I heard laughter) and looked in my rearview mirror certain I would see the carnage left behind, I instead saw the little maniac sit up, look around and WAIT for the car on the OTHER side of the road to approach before jumping out in front of it.

The second round wasn't as lucky for Mr. Squirrel.

Is this some sort of twisted, lemming-like survival of the fittest contest? Is it just me, or is it getting worse and worse every year? Were squirrels always this way? I don't remember them being this suicidal last year.

Maybe it's just me? Maybe the squirrels all get together and pick which human they're going mess with, and my number has come up!

Or maybe it's a simple explanation. Maybe some of them have been watching too much cable and think they're......Well......

My daughter has been singing that song by Hilary Duff, Supergirl. When she looked at this picture she jumped around and sang: "Haven't you heard? I'm Super Squirrel! You don't wanna mess with me....." (yep, we grow our smart alecs from birth here....)