8 May 2023

I live on the 6th floor of a high rise so I was startled to glance out the kitchen window last Thursday and see the back end of a squirrel. I know squirrels can climb but this one had to scale a brick wall, climbing more than 60 feet without the help of anything. No exterior fire escapes. No nearby trees. Nothing but bricks and window ledges.

When I saw him on my windowsill he was looking in the direction of a bird feeder more than 100 feet away on the building next door. City squirrels walk wires to cross the street so maybe he thought he’d find a wire connecting the buildings. No such thing.

He contemplated his exit. “How did I get here? How do I get back?”

He must have figured it out. He was gone the next time I looked.

p.s. Thank you to Chris Zurawsky for pointing out my Power of Ten problem. Indeed the squirrel was 60 feet up, not 600 feet as I originally wrote.

(photos by Kate St. John)