Bear, Ike and a Red Squirrel

Bear chased a squirrel up this tree along the river.

I've mentioned before how much Bear and Ike enjoy treeing squirrels. And it's fun for us to watch Bear and Ike and the squirrel. This time I sat down in a lawn chair and had my camera ready.

The squirrels can get pretty darn creative with their getaways. Sometimes they'll jump from tree to tree, sometimes they'll hunker down and wait for the dogs to give up, or sometimes, if they are in the tree next to our house, they'll make a jump for the roof of our house and oh, what a racket that makes as the roof on our house is tin.

The first time a squirrel escaped to our roof I jumped in the kitchen and yelled out the window to Steve, "What was that?"

He said, "Oh, just a desperate squirrel using the roof to getaway from the dogs."

Ike hasn't seen the squirrel so he isn't very excited. Yet.

Hard to see a small red squirrel up there.

But he isn't up there. He is slowly making his way down the other side of the tree.

That gets Ike's attention.He gets on all four paws and barks along with Bear. When Ike barks, Bear changes from barking to howling just like a wolf.

And the squirrel goes back up the tree.

They bark and howl and bark and howl. Soon Ike needs to lie down.

He does some short woofs.

Then some bigger woofs.

And they see the squirrel and it's all out woofin' and howlin'.

Oh my, Ike.

A stare down.

The squirrel stays like that for at least 20 minutes. Ike is not happy and Bear needs a drink. 

The dogs get bored and eventually find a shady spot to take a nap.

And the squirrel exits the tree.