Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modern Bestiary

(Don't tell me you don't pick a book by its cover! 😂 I chose this one because the picture fucking kills me, man -- their little smiles full of love!! 🥺😭)

I read this collection of bestiary -- bestiary! Not bestiality! 😅 A bestiary is basically a story where the characters are humanistic animals; they are animals that wear clothes and pay taxes. Typically there is a moral involved.

The author, David Sedaris, did a great job of presenting these characters! 🙂 Granted, his style is more on the dark, morbid side, but I was able to find glimpses of humor throughout. So for someone like me, I really enjoyed this book, but I can see how others could find it traumatizing! 😬

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There were 3 stories that I thoroughly enjoyed, I think they did a wonderful job of capturing human nature. The first story is called The Motherless Bear. I found this one unique, in the sense that it is the victimhood version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

A young bear's mother dies one day, and although the experience no longer upsets her, she still uses it to try and make the other bears feel sorry for her, to take advantage of them...
When the bears have finally had enough of her sob story, she begins to search for new ears who will listen, as opposed to pulling her own weight.

"Forget following advice she had never asked for in the first place. Rather than digging a den for a stranger, someone old who was just going to die anyway, she'd leave home ... She could meet some new bears, strangers who would listen to her story and allow her once again to feel tragic."

Unfortunately the "new ears" she comes across are those of a captive circus bear, subjected to an entire life of cruelty and pain.
In the end, the ring leader captures the young bear, slits the old bear's throat, and the young bear is forced to perform, alone, miserable, and tortured for the rest of her life.

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The second story is The Mouse and the Snake, and it is about a mouse who takes a baby snake from its habitat and self-imposes her love onto it. (You can probably guess how this one ends 🤦...).
Well, as the snake grows, the mouse has to find things to feed it -- other animals. Yet, despite the mouse's selfish reasons for love, she cannot sympathize with anyone else. In fact, she actively goes out of her way to create reasons as to why she shouldn't.

"She had lured the gullible children with the promise of cluster flies. If they hadn't been starving, and possibly brain damaged due to their upbringing, they wouldn't have so blindly followed her."

In the end, the snake eats the mouse, the mouse having failed to realize that the snake viewed her as she viewed others.

"Had they instead put their ears to the door, they might have heard the snake, his belly full of unconditional love, banging to be let out."

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The final story is The Sick Rat and the Healthy Rat. A healthy rat is placed in the environment of a sickly, dying rat. The healthy rat's first reaction, is to blame the sick rat for his circumstances. She attributes her wonderful health to her "loving nature," despite proving otherwise.

"Her pink eyes narrowed just slightly. 'I can bet that when something does happen, it'll be a lot worse than the flu. Diabetes, maybe.'

"'You sound pretty hopeful,' the white rat observed.

"The female scowled, then smiled so hard the corners of her mouth touched her eyes. 'Not at all. I wish her the best.'"

Suddenly a gloved hand holding a syringe injects the healthy rat with AIDS.

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And those were 3 short stories from Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk! 😄 I hope you enjoyed them. As I stated earlier, I feel these stories did a wonderful job of representing the deceitful, two-faced, and often times despicable nature of human beings. (And to be quite frank, I've been encountering a lot of these people as of late...). Here is the hope for more positive vibes! 😀 Please enjoy the rest of your week! 👋