New York City had its viral moment in 2015 when a rat was recorded dragging a pizza slice up some subway stairs. But could Kewanee now have its own version of a rodent versus human food?
A Kewanee man chronicled the epic struggle of a rather rotund squirrel and a muffin while eating his lunch on Tuesday.
Tom Hernandez, who works as playground supervisor at Central School, had just returned from getting a sandwich for lunch when he pulled into a parking space. While eating his sandwich, he saw a rather large squirrel dragging something in front of the Central bike rack.
“I saw something in his mouth,” he said.
On closer inspection, he saw that the something the squirrel was carrying was a chocolate chip muffin.
For the next several minutes, Hernandez watched as the squirrel dragged the muffin a few feet before stopping to take a few nibbles. The squirrel repeated that behavior for several yards. So humorous was the sight that Hernandez pulled out his phone and began snapping photos.
After the squirrel had dragged the muffin into the street, a truck came by and the squirrel scrambled back into the grass, he said. Once the danger had passed, the squirrel returned to its booty and continued with his snack down the road.
“I am watching him and he finishes the muffin and starts doing circles and I realize he was looking for the muffin and he was pretty upset. He thought he had lost the muffin,” Hernandez said, adding that a trail of muffin crumbs was the only evidence left.
Hernandez has a theory on how the squirrel happened upon an entire muffin in the first place.
“Right by the front door of the school is a trash can and a student probably tossed it and missed the can,” he said.
Hernandez said he felt compelled to document the squirrel.
“It was just so funny,” he said.
Hernandez has worked for the school district for many years and said the squirrels that live around the school are pretty smart, fairly tame and pretty well fed.
Hernandez said the plump squirrel is no doubt bulking up for winter and the muffin probably helped. And students do drop a lot of food on the ground, he said, making it an ideal location for hungry squirrels to forage for their next meal.
“I think squirrels around the school probably have higher cholesterol than your average squirrel,” said Hernandez.
