Your stomach rumbles and Cleo gigglechitters at you. "Looks like someone's hungry."
You nod as you look about and see a mother and child near the tiger cage.
"Mommy! I want to feed some animals!"
"Yes, dear, but not the tigers. We need to go feed some other animals." The mother leads the enthusiastic child toward something a bit more tame than the tiger den.
You look toward Cleo. "I don't recall. Is there anything against begging for treats?" you ask as you raise your tail in a question mark.
Cleo pauses a moment and thinks. "No. But be careful."
You nod and bound off through the trees with Cleo following close behind. You pass the mother and child and bound down a tree and start "searching for nuts" in the pathway ahead of them.
"Look, Mommy! A sqwuirrel!" the child yells.
You flick your tail in panic and dart for the base of a tree and climb partway up and then stare back at the two humans.
"Hush, dear," the mother chided her child. "If you yell like that, you'll scare them off." She pulls-out a cracker from a bag with the zoo's logo on it. She breaks it into quarters and gives a quarter to the child. "Toss it to the base of the tree and maybe it will come get it."
The child does as he's told. You hesitate a moment, flicking your tail and then slowly crawl down the tree. You ever so slowly approach the food morsel, constantly flicking your tail and watching the humans. Sniffing it you realize it smells similar to the pellets back in the nest compound. You pick it up with your mouth, head back up the tree and sit on a branch where the two humans can see you as you nibble at the treat. Not very flavorful, but it helps calm the hunger pains.
The child giggles with delight and tosses another cracker piece and you repeat your act for him. On the third toss, you don't bother going back up the tree, but nibble it at the base of the tree.
"See, dear, the animals here are semi-tame from being around humans, but you have to be careful not to spook them."
"I wanna hand feed da sqwurril."
The mother hesitates as Cleo chitters down to you that it wouldn't be a good idea. Your stomach rumbles still.
The child continues to plea. You take a couple of hesitant bounds toward them and flick your tail. You stand up on your hind paws and give them the BambiEyes(tm) treatment. Hey, you're a zoo employee, right and you're suppose to entertain the humans. If you get a treat out of it, that's a bonus! You chitter a little in their direction.
"See, he wants more!" the child states. "Please let me give him another!"
The mother hesitates a moment, but gives in as you stare at her and tremble your lip just a little. You're quite the ham. "Well, alright," she says and gives the child another quarter cracker. "You need to crouch down slowly so as not to scare it off. Hold it out carefully and the moment he touches it, let go."
The child does as he's told. You hesitate a moment and then slowly creep toward the child. Each time he twitches, you jump back a few steps. Eventually, he holds still long enough for you to reach for the cracker with your teeth. As you do so, he drops it. You pick it up, bound back a ways and nibble on it.
"OK, that's enough. We need to save some for other animals, dear."
"OK, that's enough," Cleo calls down to you. "Get back up here."
"Ah, just one more, mommy!" the child pleas.
You chitter back up to Cleo. "I wouldn't want to disappoint them if they offer one more cracker."
You take a couple of bounds toward the humans and then toward the nearest tree.
"Well," the mother hesitates, "alright. But do it just like before."
The child exclaims in excitement, takes the cracker piece, crouches down and holds still. He makes coaching noises in your direction along the lines of "Come on, sqwuirrel."
You repeat your act. However, the child drops the cracker a moment too soon and you accidentally nip his fingers. He cries out as he snatches his hand back and you dart up the tree in panic.
"Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Oh, shit!" you repeat as you dart up the tree.
"What happened?" Cleo demands as the child cries as his mother comforts him.
"He fumbled the cracker and I accidentally nipped his finger," you answer as a drop of blood from the child drips off your nose. You chatter in panic. "I didn't mean to do it. It was an accident."
The child suddenly stops sobbing as he stares up in the tree at you and Cleo. "Did you hear that, mommy? The squirrel just said it was an accident."
You and Cleo stare at each other. "OH, SH...CRAP!" you yell in unison, checking your language.