I made a new friend the other day, and his name is Pfhlurtt! How do I know what his name is, you might ask? Well, I made kissy noises and he came right up and introduced himself. If I told you that his full name is actually Reginald Nutflinger Pfhlurtt, you would never believe me, so we will call him Pfhlurtt for short!

I met him the other day while walking on a different route than my normal “Bob the Squirrel” trail. I do not think that the two squirrels knew of one another, mainly because there are a lot of Bobs out there, and also, I had never actually gotten Bobs’ last name!

The funny thing about this encounter was that Pfhlurtt knew who I was, before I ever even offered him that peanut. When he did not seem to know my friend Bob, I was quite perplexed as to how I was in Pfhlurtts’ list of contacts. As he ate the peanut I gave him, the funny little creature told me how he came to be so familiar with me.

Apparently, shortly after we moved into this area late last fall, I had passed through the middle of the Pfhlurtt clans terratory. The whole community had been out on one of their last foraging events of the year, grabbing the last morsels available. When the family saw me coming they assumed that I had some contributions for them, as passersby usually did. The whole clan got excited and ran to greet me, but I bolted before they could make proper introductions. I guess they always felt badly about that!

Pfhlurtts’ story brought the memory back to me with renewed freshness, and we both sat there giggling about what I saw verses what he saw. When I mentioned the Alfred Hitchcock movie that the incident reminded me of, Pfhlurtt cracked up, because his family spends movie nights on the fenceline outside of an elderly couples home, and they were avid black and white movie fans. Pfhlurtt had actually seen the movie that I was talking about!

Well, anyway, a new friendship began for myself and Pfhlurrt! I am now fully aware of where my little squirrel community resides, and have made a date to swing by with a spring care package. The whole Pfhlurrt clan plans on being there so this time I am bringing a whole bag instead of the three little nuts I keep in my pocket for these chance encounters.