Flash Post 216!

Button, see that tiny creature sunbathing on top of the iron spikes?

That’s a squirrel, if I’m not mistaken.

You are absolutely right, Button, and I spotted this one after more than 2-3 years.

Where did they go in the interim?

They’d fled because our gardener was using some kind of toxic pesticide to keep insects at bay. Dost had hit the nail on the head when he’d pointed out that the squirrels, chameleons, snails, earthworms, birds and butterflies had mysteriously disappeared because of some chemical the gardener was using. We even had squirrels and chameleons giving birth to their young.

What happened? What made them return?

They’ve just started returning after we advised the gardener to stop using the toxic stuff and use the herbal variety instead. In fact, after he found out from us that we actually love entertaining these creatures and were very sad that they had abandoned our home, he found a way of using a suitable pesticide so our friends would return to our Garden of Eden someday.

And you actually spotted a squirrel today!

Not one but quite a few and they were chirping and running up and down the barks of the plants and chasing each other round and round. The one I clicked was actually sunbathing as the sun peeped out from in-between the clouds on a rainy day.

Perhaps the chameleon will also return. And the snails, butterflies, caterpillars and birds.

Minus the rodents.

Maybe.