Willie

Willie is a squirrel. Not just any squirrel. I'm going to sound cheesy right now, but we treat her kind of like a baby - and we can't wait to show her to our guests.

We discovered her in our backyard in the Spring. We saw that she came day after day, so we named her. Once she got closer to us and we found out she was a girl (the teets, ok!) we rationalized that 'Willie' could be short for Willemina.

One day, we went to four different stores looking for peanuts for her. Four. That is no exaggeration. We started putting the peanuts on our patio, so we could watch her from the sliding glass door in our kitchen.

Jay, who has the patience of a Saint, was determined to get her to take a peanut from his hand. I wasn't so sure he could do that, but eventually he did. The next stage was coaxing Willie into the kitchen, then onto the couch in the kitchen. The real feat was when Jay got Willie to eat a peanut from his lap - twice. During the first few months of all this, each morning one of us would get up to make coffee and yell excitedly to the other, "Wille is here"!

We were so happy to play the peanut game with her that sometimes Jay missed the train and I was a little later to work than I meant to be.

A few months ago, she stopped coming around. We were very sad. I told Jay, "Maybe she fell in love". But she is back and cuter than ever! The other day she came into the house and got on our piano! And this morning, I was outside watering and called her name, and she ran towards me. Until we have our own baby, Willie is it.