Winter Tale

As I looked out the kitchen window at two gray squirrels perched on the front deck eating sunflower seeds, one of them, for some reason known only to him, decided he wanted to be on the ground. He made a running dive right through the railing and off the edge of the porch, dropping about 10 feet to the ground, and ran straight across the yard. Actually it would be closer to say he swam across the yard. Churning through a foot of fresh snow, he did not leave footprints but rather a trench like a jet ski or a snowmobile, a roster tail cloud of snow powder spraying up behind him as he went of over the bank and out of sight.