Animal Friends

I have plenty of animal friends in my garden. All of them are wild. But they are so tame that they use to come to our house and eat out of my hand, as I feed them daily. Different animals eat different food. The way they eat is very eye-catching.

Squirrels are the most interesting friends who come to my garden. Most of them are so tame, that they eat out of my hand. When they realize that we don't want to hurt them they get tame I usually talk to them each and every time when I feed them. Usually I say "Hello Tikki, how are you? Are you hungry? Just a minute, I'll bring you biscuits."

I wonder whether they understand me. But they react by sitting on the window and move their tails and puff up their fur. When I stretch my hand with food they hold my finger and take the food and go away.

One day when I was playing in the garden, I was shocked to see a grizzled hill squirrel on a coconut tree. I talked to it the way I talked to my other friends (wild). To my amazement it came down. I got frightened, but I gave it a banana. It came down and ate it. As I was a bit excited the banana fell down. On the following day it came at the same time.

I was waiting with my parents. When I saw it, I talked and gave a banana. I was overjoyed because my parents said it won't be a grizzled hill squirrel (dandulena). Then my parents said it is a real grizzled hill squirrel but it must have jumped out of a cage from a house and had come searching for food.

Just imagine, as I live in the heart of Chilaw I get many wild animal friends who make my leisure time happy and peaceful. Don't think they are wild. They are so cute and innocent.

I think if you love all, you can be friendly with everybody, even wild animals. So dear friends, you should also try and see the reaction of the wild animals. But don't go to touch or hurt them.