Jared used his tiny squirrel paws to pound on the glass pane in his brother's bedroom window. His bushy tail flicked nervously as he chattered for attention. His squirrel brain, nervous and twitchy, argued that he should return to concealment within the dense foliage of the oak.
"Kev!" Jared chattered. "Let me in! Help!"
"Wow! Lookit!" Kev's friend, Charlie, exclaimed upon glancing at the window and observing a squirrel tapping at the glass.
The squirrel's brain, nearly frantic with worry, wanted to leave the windowsill and scurry back onto the branches that formed its concept of home among the oak and other neighboring trees.
Kevin had just turned his attention to the scene outside his window when a swoosh of pale steel-gray feathers snatched the tiny squirrel from the windowsill in sharp, unforgiving talons.
"Noooo!" Jared shrieked with his frenzied chattering as he realized too late the warning the squirrel's instincts had been trying to impress on him.
"Did you see that?" Charlie whooped. "That was so awesome!"
Kevin, at least sparing a passing thought for the hawk's prey, remarked, "Poor squirrel," but then turned back toward his laptop.
The monstrously large, impressively strong raptor flew into one of the sturdy limbs in the nearby oak tree. On the ground, an English sheepdog studied the drama with eyes half hidden behind a curtain of fur. Shaggy grumbled, unhappy that the big bird had gotten the squirrel instead of him.
Jared kept squirming in the painful grasp of the hawk. "Shaggy! Help me, boy!" Jared chattered.
Shaggy scratched at an itch, wondered when someone would bring him a tasty bacon treat, and almost immediately forgot about the drama taking place over his head.
With practiced precision, the hawk ended the prey's squirming with a blow to the rodent's skull with its sharp-tipped beak and proceeded to enjoy its easily acquired meal.