Why I call Squirrels "Charlie"

Marie published a squirrel photo on her blog. He enjoyed the mulberry tree in her yard while it was producing berries.

She remembers her dad hand-feeding a squirrel when she was a child. We called the squirrel Charlie, a tradition we got from our neighbor Slim Pettigrew way back when Marie was a toddler. Old Slim fed squirrels on the windowsill of his second-floor apartment. He even placed a board between a tree branch and his window to encourage the squirrels to visit. They eventually got so tame that they came in the window and ate peanuts indoors.