A missed opportunity

I was just getting back from my lunchtime walk and was passing a house with a tall fence around it. All of a sudden, a squirrel comes shooting over the fence and is heading straight at me! My first thought is "rabid squirrel" and I froze. I should have run if I was really afraid or I should have gotten my camera ready if I wasn't. But I was in that twilight zone between. It didn't take long and the squirrel was only a few feet from me when it jumped to the tree I was standing near and sped up the trunk. I was standing near it's home tree, I guess, and when it was threatened in the yard, it headed for safety. I don't think it really saw me until it was almost to the tree.

I tried to recover to get a picture but this was a smart squirrel and it stayed on the opposite side of the tree until it was hidden well up in the branches and I couldn't get a shot. The picture I've included here is from some pictures I took back in August, 2007 of a much more curious squirrel. This squirrel, as I mentioned in my post back then, stayed on the branch looking at me for minutes. I couldn't miss the shots I got then. But today, I missed a great opportunity. It won't be the last.