RAINING PEANUTS

I looked out my kitchen window and noticed something on one of the large oak trees in our back yard. It was about 50 feet up and scurrying around the trunk. “What is that?” I asked my son Alex as he came into the room. He came over next to me and looked out the window.

“Is it a bird?” I squinted as I tried to decide what type of bird moved like that.

“I think it’s a chipmunk.”

“What?” I went out on our back deck to get a closer look. Putting my hand up over my eyes trying to shade them from the sun, I could see that Alex was right. “I’ve never seen a chipmunk up that high in a tree before.” I looked over at Alex who was now standing next to me. “I always thought they were ground dwellers.”

“I think they usually are.”

We both watched as the chipmunk climbed higher and higher.

I winced. “Oh, man. What if he falls?” I looked back at Alex. “Have you ever seen a chipmunk up that high before?”

Alex shook his head no. “I had a feeling this was going to happen.”

Now I was confused. “You had a feeling what was going to happen?”

Alex pointed to the bird feeder container on the deck, that also had a bag of peanuts in it. “You’ve been tossing peanuts out to them for weeks.”

“So?”

Alex pointed to the oak tree. “You’ve been tossing them out by the tree.” He pointed up to the chipmunk. “Your little buddy there is trying to find out where they’re coming from.”

“Oh, man. That’s just great.” I couldn’t help but sigh. “Now if the little guy falls to his death it will be my fault.” I looked back up in the tree and called. “Hey! It’s me! I’m the one giving them to you!”

I went over to the bird food container and scooped a handful of peanuts from the bag. Going over to the edge of the deck I tossed them away from the oak tree and closer to one of our smaller pines. “There you go little guy. The pine trees the one raining peanuts!”

I looked over at Alex. “Do you think that will work?” I asked him.

Alex didn’t look convinced as he patted me on the shoulder. “Sure. He heard every word you said.”

I looked back up in the tree as the chipmunk climbed higher and higher. “Oh, come on!” I once again I pointed down to where I’d thrown the peanuts. “They’re down here!”

Alex tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the spot where the peanuts were.

“Oh come on!” I cried again as I watched two squirrels, a cardinal and a blue jay eating all the peanuts. “I wasn’t feeding those to any of you!” I pointed back up at the chipmunk. “They’re for him!”

Alex was looking over at all the other wildlife eating away. “I can’t be positive, but I’m pretty sure they don’t understand a word you’re saying.”