Sciurus carolinensis: the dreaded, pesky Eastern grey squirrel, so ubiquitous in this part of the US.

Everyone says you’re not supposed to like squirrels. Squirrels are a pest. They scare away the birds, which are smaller and prettier and less common and therefore morally superior and more deserving. How do you keep those damn squirrels away from your bird feeder so that the birds can eat??

I too fell for the anti-squirrel propaganda, having been raised by two avid bird-watchers and grown up in a very actively pro-bird, anti-squirrel household. When my husband and I moved into our house six-odd years ago, I got a bird feeder for the backyard, but soon got rid of it because all it managed to feed were squirrels, those plain old Eastern grey squirrels. Obnoxious rodents, I thought. Waste of time and effort, I thought.

But at thirty-six, I have realized that, actually: I love feeding the squirrels. This is one of those things that I would never have seen the beauty in if not for having kids.

It began with the book “The Secret Life of Squirrels” by Nancy Rose: a kids’ book that we checked out from the public library. If you’re not familiar with this book, it’s about a squirrel named “Mr. Peanuts:” a very cottagecore slice-of-life little story for small children. The illustrations are real photographs of a real squirrel, taken in little dollhouse-like arrangements and backdrops. It’s very precious.

So we read and loved this book. Then at some point afterwards, my younger daughter (age 3-4 at the time) noticed a squirrel, an ordinary Eastern grey squirrel, outside our dining room window, and exclaimed: “it’s Mr. Peanuts!”

How about we set some food on the ledge for him?, I offered.

Because see our dining room window has a busted screen, a hole in it big enough to fit your hand through. And at the base of this window, on the outside wall of the house, is a small brick ledge, just the right size for a squirrel. So we began setting little bits of food out there, through the hole and onto the ledge, for the squirrels. Mostly PB&J crusts (my kids’ diet is 75% PB&Js). But also bits of bread, pancake, waffle, crackers – pretty much anything that drops on the floor and is rendered inedible to humans.

And so “Mr. Peanuts” began coming right up to our window. We could sit there in our dining room and look at him, at eye level, up close and personal.

I think I love it even more than the kids do. Every time he hops up there, we all shriek with delight. I even started making him his own little treats sometimes. Like two corn tortillas sandwiched together with peanut butter and cut into wedges. A squirrel pizza, I called it. And when he took one of the wedges in his little hands and started chewing on it, we all screamed: he’s eating his pizza! It honestly made my day.

I can sit there and watch him endlessly. He’s fascinating: his tiny little paws with their tiny bendy fingers, and the way they grasp a piece of food; his beady black eyes, the cloud of spindly silvery hairs on his curved tail. His twitchy little movements. It’s really marvelous, the way he eats and hops around.

Sometimes he and his little squirrel friends fight over the food. Squirrel battles ensue. It’s slightly distressing, but also very entertaining: a real-life nature documentary.

Sometimes I’m like: damn! These critters really just exist in my yard, all the time, and I just don’t even think about it?!

Why do people not like squirrels? Just because they are everywhere? Because they are able to live in all kinds of different environments, from the forest to the inner city? Isn’t that kind of cool?

Why do people hate squirrels? Is it because they’re always jumping into the path of oncoming cars and then zig-zagging down the middle of the road (a survival tactic meant to deflect a pursuing predator)? I admit that is very annoying. Sometimes I do gripe about it, if I’m trying to get somewhere in a hurry. But I also always brake or swerve to avoid them. My driver’s ed coach way back in the day docked points off my test, in fact, because I braked for squirrels.

Do people hate squirrels because they can carry diseases? – Like any wildlife? You know what else carries diseases? Birds! And you bend over backwards to invite those onto your property.

Is it just because they scare away the birds? The pretty, dainty little birds?I guess I can understand preferring a creature because it’s more beautiful than another. When I chose the flowers for my wedding, I chose the ones that I think are most beautiful (hydrangeas). When I adopted the dogs that I used to have, I favored them over the other available dogs mainly because they were cute. And Lord knows I’d rather have butterflies in my yard than creepy, ugly beetles and ants.

But I wonder if our quickness to prefer things that are uncommonly beautiful sometimes causes us to neglect the everyday beauty that’s sometimes right in front of us. If you narrow your definition of beauty to what’s uncommon, like the red-carpet celebrities in their custom gowns, then all the people around you in your everyday life are going to seem ugly and disappointing. And when we start to equate beauty with moral superiority, which we are naturally inclined to do without even thinking about it… that becomes problematic, especially if we have a distorted idea of what beauty is.

I understand being more impressed by something that you don’t see as often. The birds, the beautiful little delicate birds with their colorful feathers. All these anti-squirrel measures that people take in their backyards, the great lengths they go to to keep them away: I guess it’s the same way we weed our flower garden so that the beautiful flowers can grow.

Personally, I’m not much of a gardener. I’m not much of a maker, a doer, or a go-getter. I’m very passive, and have always just kind of taken what comes my way rather than fought to get what I want (for the most part, that is, with a few noteworthy exceptions). So I guess it’s characteristic of me that I gave up birdwatching, and have now just embraced the company of the squirrels.

And personally, I don’t think that’s so bad. It’s easy, it’s peaceful, and it’s fun. Que sera and all that. It’s been a surprise and a joy to stop fighting against nature and realize just how interesting the Eastern grey squirrel is. I guess sometimes you don’t realize, until you stop weeding your garden, that some of the weeds are lovely in their own ways.