Well, consider this a little Birthday story, or should I say 'saga' for you tonight, Patty. I do need to write it down and I No longer keep a journal, so....... just when I think Pixie is like the many cats and dogs and parakeets I've had in my life, she  turns around and makes me laugh harder than anything I've ever 'nurtured' and watched grow.  My son Berry being exempt in this category. Well, he was the adult in our  relationship. I  began calling him Granpa' at the age of 7..  Wait, Pixie! yes... it all began around  9 a.m. this morning..  I take her  huge but  very  up to date 'living  quarters cage' out back to clean.. The wild squirrels can see me coming for a country mile.. There are goodies in the sawdust where she has a sectioin  where she finds things I hide for her during the week.. She is potty trained by the way, did it herself,  goes into her little corner every morning and when she has to go, she goes into the cage, very grateful..lol. I come back into the house and she is sitting on the table where her 'house' always is, looking dejected, lost and down right bummed out. No toys could get her off of the table, she  was firm on that. Yesterday the grocer had given me a Huge Walnut, so I set it on the table and sat down to rest. She jumped up and picked this huge thing up and stared at it, like it was something she 'knew' but had never seen before.. She had never done this with a pumpkin seed, an almond,  even a brazil nut! I stood up and went about my  duties, thinking she'd lose interest and went to  dry her cage.. When I came back inside the house, I could hear this  bouncing and  shuffling and little squeeks, I thought, "o, No, she's into something, " but it was the Walnut she was trying to  get a hold of and was playing with it at the same time on the floor.. (all hardwood). She baffed it, would  fling it with her tail under the couch, then come out from under the couch with it nestled under one arm and look down at it, still mystifyed. This went on for  well over an  hour.   I even had her cage set up with all her  furry bedding in it and  her bowl of pear and grapes.  I  came back into the room about half an hour later and she had fallen asleep, splayed out on my desk with walnut  protectively hidden  in the curl of her tail. She was Beat!!!                                                                     ~.~  /  So I went and got the nutcracker and came and sat down and   took the walnut and  cracked the walnut, she sat up and watched me as I layed the four sections in front of her and she took  the shell  and looked up at me and started eating the nut, happily and with relish..  AS  she ate it, I read my quotation book and  all of a sudden she came onto the couch and dropped  the empty shell in my lap and just walked to  her little 'home', did a nosedive for her bed and has not come out ONCE  all day. Happy as a clam, content knowing she is a squirrel and guess what She is getting tomorrow morning at 9ish in the morning?