Session Stories: The Story of Rocky

Sitting in my usual chair, deep in conversation, and out the window to my left I saw movement. Trying not to break up my thoughts, I continued looking ahead and listening to what she had to say. But the movement became too much when he leaped onto the window seal. My thoughts were interrupted immediately and laughter ensued. The metaphor of dogs getting distracted by a squirrel was me that day. I was the one distracted… by a literal squirrel. I couldn’t stop laughing at him perched next to the window – only two feet away from me. Not being able to see me through the tinted window, he continued eating the acorn he brought with him.

“Well, if anything can top that ‘SQUIRREL’ moment I would be surprised,” I told her through my grin as I tried to refocus on our conversation. When the squirrel continued to show up week after week, I welcomed the pause to watch him bounce around outside. “He needs a name. Does he have a name yet?” I asked her.

“One of my other clients said it should be Rocky, from the cartoon,” Debbie told me.

“Rocky. I like it.” And from then on, we greeted Rocky by name when he showed up at the window.

Shortly after Rocky started appearing, a squirrel in my own yard was making his presence known. Mostly by trying to jump on the bird feeders, and occasionally coming near my office window, looking for a place to bury his food. While annoyed at first that he was trying to empty my bird feeders, I soon began to enjoy his arrival and shared with Debbie I had a ‘Rocky’ in my own yard. I didn’t know what to call him, so for a while he was just “Rocky Jr.” My annoyance with Rocky Jr. faded once I decided to start giving him his own food, rather than shooing him away from the bird feeders.

As time went on, I started seeing funny squirrel reels during late-night scrolling and I would save the link to show Debbie the next time I was in her office. I don’t know if all her clients admired Rocky like I did, but I thought it made for fun conversations, and a chance to make her laugh with a crazy video. Even the video of the squirrel in my yard that was jumping crazily one day, as if something kept spooking him. It was so strange, and funny to me, that I had to capture it and show her the following week.

Squirrel stories, videos, and personal appearances from Rocky continued to happen. One day, after shopping at the bird store, I walked into Debbie’s office with excitement that I couldn’t wait to share. “You’ll never guess what I bought at the bird store. A squirrel trapeze!”

“A what? Did you just say squirrel trapeze?” she asked me.

“Yes, I saw it at the bird store when I was buying squirrel food and thought it would be a good birthday present for myself,” I told her while looking for the picture of it on my phone.

After that session, she asked me regularly if Rocky Jr. had used it yet. “Any luck with the squirrel trapeze? I thought about getting one, but want to know if it works first.”

I loved that we were now bonding over such a silly thing as a squirrel trapeze.

 “Not yet, I think I need to move it because he doesn’t seem interested in leaping onto it from the tree. But if moving it doesn’t work, I’ll bring it to you so you can test it before buying one.”

Debbie passed away before I could take her the squirrel trapeze, and before I could tell her the name I thought of for the squirrel outside my office window. He showed up one day, digging intensely in the flowerpot in my peripheral view. Unsure of whether he was looking for something or burying something, I watched with curiosity. As he dug deeper and deeper, I began to chuckle. “He’s quite the digger,” I thought. “Wait, ‘Digger’, that should be his name.” And just like, he was officially Digger.

The day after I heard the news of Debbie’s passing, I saw Digger getting close to the trapeze and all I could think was, “No, don’t get on it today. Please don’t get on it because I won’t be able to tell her about it now.” The following day, I took it down because I couldn’t stand the thought of not sharing the news with her, and I was sad she hadn’t gotten to try it yet with Rocky. The trapeze is safely stored in my garage for the moment. I will put it back in the yard this Spring, and I will eagerly wait for Digger to find it and swing his little heart out. And when he does, I know Debbie will be smiling from above. Any time I see a squirrel running around, I instantly think of her. Usually, it’s cardinals that remind us of someone we have lost, but this time it’s a squirrel for me.