My Friend the Squirrel

This was a letter I wrote to Marc and Andy on Sept. 22, 2006 while they were on their missions:

Hello all,

I just thought I'd check in once again. It's been a little while since I've written, and it's been a long while since I've talked to some of you (Elder Marcus Bailey takes 1st place for that one), so I figured I let you in on some of the things that have been
happening around here.

First of all, if you didn't know it already, Marc and Andy, Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter, died about a week ago. A sting ray stung him in the heart with one of its barbs. This may seem odd to some of you, but I loved Steve Irwin. I loved him long before he was ever the Crocodile Hunter! Me and Ed Allshouse used to watch his show when it was called The Steve Irwin
Show, and I'm pretty sure those were the days when I decided I wanted to work in a zoo. His passion for God's creations developed a passion in me. I even made Dad buy a set of CD's for the computer so I could start learning about all the animals in the world, and someday, be as knowledgable in the field as the Aussie. Anyway, his death was kind of sad for me. It put me in a sombre mood all day, and it didn't help that I would be at work washing dishes for another seven hours.

After a while, I was let on break. I took a banana-nut muffin with me and went and sat on a little bench under a tree, secluded from the rest of campus. As I sat eating my muffin, I noticed a visitor tip-toeing slowly towards me. "Crikey!" I thought. "A squirrel!" I smiled at "the beautiful animal" and he immediately backed off a coulple feet. I took a little piece of my banana-nut muffin and held it out for him. He took a couple steps forward, but wouldn't go any further. "Don't worry little fella! I'm not gonna hurt ya." I continued to hold my hand out, and eventually, the squirrel realized that I really wasn't going to hurt him. So he walked right up to me and took the chunk out of my hand. Then he scurried off a couple feet to
eat, eyeing me while chewed. I continued to eat my muffin and he continued to come up to me for more crumbs. And I spent the rest of my break with that little squirrel.

Later that night (I'll be brief with this one), I was taking out the trash, and in the middle of the path, I saw what I thought was a rather large cat staring at me. When I realized there's no way a cat could grow to that size, I became a little wary and started walking slower towards the animal. The animal, whatever it was, spooked and darted right for me. "Crikey!" I thought. "Don't be upset, you little bugga!" I got out of the way, and he darted for the bushes. I knelt down to see if I couldn't make out what it was, and there he was, a raccoon, "a magnificent animal!" staring back at me through the leaves. I threw out a piece of bread from the trash towards him. He calmly walked out, grabbed the bread and walked back into the bushes. There he sat, eyeing me as he ate the tasty morsel.

I've been back to both of those spots several times since, but haven't seen my friends. I take comfort knowing that if we don't meet again in this life, I'll be able to see them in the next. And what's more, I may even get to sit around with Betsy, Buster, Sasha, Pepsi, Tiggy, and others, and perhaps Steve himself will join us all for some hot cocoa and a game of Animal Kingdom. Wouldn't that be great.

One more thing: George Lucas has decided to donate $175 million to the cinema school, which will be called The School of Cinematic Arts from now on (upon his request). It's the largest donation ever for USC and will be used to upgrade our facilities. Pretty sweet, eh? Unfortunately, I think I'll be done by the time any of it takes effect. But still. 175 Mil is pretty sweet in and of itself.

Until we meet again,
Douglas