Yesterday was Chinese Lantern Festival, lunar January 15th, which marks the end of Lunar New Year celebration. In ancient times, the towns would be all lit up by hundreds of thousands of lanterns, locals all coming out at night to appreciate the lanterns, making for fun crowds and fun night life. Naturally it created such a good opportunity for young people to hang out, so it became the Chinese Valentine’s Day. With a full moon shining on sky, the well lit up happy earth filled with lanterns, locals and laughter, made such a picturesque Chinese romantic scene. It’s interesting, there’s only 2 days in between western Valentine’s and Chinese Valentine’s this year. I guess love is in the air, no matter where in the world.
It rained all night long last night, so no full moon. Early in the morning, it was still misty drizzling, when I stepped out in the yard and saw a squirrel freezing still, standing on the fence, with two paws hanging in front of his white chest, staring at me, totally motionless. What a furry statue! I walked away and let him enjoy his breakfast of the seed meant for the birds.
When I returned, I was called in for a live National Geographic Wild Kingdom mini show! Across from my house, a cat chased a squirrel all the way to the top of a tree, both stuck there in a standoff. I found myself a better angle to see: it’s a tree about 20 feet tall, a grey cat with a little bell on the neck, climbed up to the midpoint, where the thicker trunk ends; a grey squirrel was almost to the very top of the tree, on a very thin branch, fortunately thanks to the light weight of squirrel, he can climb higher where the cat is too heavy to handle the thin branches. I know the grey cat, he is a short haired hunter cat, obviously he is such a good hunter that the owner tied a little bell on his neck to warn his prey when he’s stalking, sneakily closing up on his prey.
I also know that squirrel, the freezing furry statue I saw earlier in the misty rain waiting for me to leave so he can enjoy his breakfast. I won’t forget those two paws hanging in front of white chest.
I decided to rescue the squirrel. I grabbed a stick and crossed the street, when I was getting closer, the cat turned towards me first, oddly enough, the squirrel came down to the lower branch too , almost side by side with the cat. Obviously, I’m a bigger danger to the squirrel than the cat! I waved my big stick towards the cat, fortunately the cat reacted first and jumped off the tree. Whew! The squirrel was safe!
Mission accomplished! I’m glad I saved some furry one’s Valentine!