What is crawling up my leg?

Oh my goodness, it's a squirrel!

Yes, really. Yesterday a squirrel decided to climb up my leg. It was a rare sunny November day yesterday and I was taking photos in Stanley Park. Just as I got to the little bridge over the western end of Lost Lagoon, I was greeted by a grey squirrel who thought my leg looked like a good thing to climb. I didn't have any nuts to give him, so I shooed him off when he got to my knee, and thanked him for the mud his paws got on my pants.

It has become very obvious to me that, as I've admitted I need a wheelchair to get around, I am now in the "weak and vulnerable" section of the human herd. I have no illusions of humans being above primal pack instincts to prey on the "weak and vulnerable". This makes me very wary of other humans. I would not be in Stanley Park by myself unless I was sure there would be a lot of other people there, including many park workers, who could potentially help me if an individual human was being beastly. Safety in numbers... I have primal instincts too.

It's shocking how this has changed my relationships with other animals as well. I smile at dogs, and I'm closer to their level now, so they often wag their tails back at me. I have to slow down and make "pigeon, pigeon, pigeon" noises very loudly to get pigeons out of my way when I'm driving my wheelchair around so I don't run over them. Cats glare at me and stay as far away from me as they can go while still watching me. And now I'm considered no risk at all by squirrels! At least not by the grey squirrels in Stanley Park who are used to being fed by humans. Another couple of squirrels bounded up to me a while later, but I shooed them away before they started climbing. (See the photo above for one that was bounding up, as I shooed at him.)

As I contemplated this event while taking photos in the park, I also realized I keep my left-hand pinky up in the air while I'm pointing my camera... because a chickadee landed on it! That made me shriek just a little bit. Those claws are sharp! So I'm not a risk for little birds either!

Now I have to figure out how to take photos of these animals while they are visiting me so closely... and I need to find some bird seed and some nuts for my new friends before I go out again. You're not supposed to feed the wildlife... but obviously I'm not considered the average human anymore, so maybe I'll side with the little animals.