Racing Squirrels

Every year around the holidays, my wife leaves a cardboard box covered in Christmas wrapping paper on our front porch. In the box, she leaves snacks like chips, cookies, and candy with a note taped to the back of the box that reads something like the following.

Dear delivery drivers,

Thank you so much for your hard work all year long. Please take, as a small token of our appreciation, a snack if you’d like.

Happy Holidays.

The Sonberts

The drivers always take a snack, and on the occasions that I’m leaving or arriving when they’re digging through the box, they always say “Thank you SO much.”

This is a really cool thing my wife does.

Except there’s an issue.

The squirrels in our neighborhood have figured out that inside that box are things way more delicious than acorns. I mean, Oreos vs acorns isn’t really a fair fight, right?

So, we started using a Tupperware bin with a lid, with the note on top. It’s an extra step for the drivers, but it seems to have worked.

Here’s the issue now.

We often get groceries delivered. I’m away for work a lot and with three little kiddos, my wife prefers to shop online and have the food left out front for her.

But the squirrels are on to us. They know that our house is the house to get the best food.

So now, when we see the drivers dropping the food out front, we’re in a race against an army of squirrels waiting to tear those bags open to steal our grub.

They’ve grabbed bananas, M&Ms, frozen chicken nuggets, and entire sleeves of bagels.

Sometimes we win. Sometimes they do. I think they know it’s a competition at this point, as a few weeks ago, when we arrived home, two of them were just sitting on top of our garbage can, staring at us.

Our car didn’t startle them. Me yelling didn’t startle them. They’re the most bad**s squirrels on the planet at this point. Like a gang of food-thieving, hard core, little gray maniacs with nothing to lose.

Here’s the leadership lesson (I’m getting there).

This used to drive me nuts. I’d see dollar signs being flushed down the toilet every time they go some food. Now, I think it’s a blast. Like Jim Collins preaches - Acknowledge the Game.

It’s not something we planned on, but we have fun with it. Sometimes, you need to do just that.