And so it continues!

After my initial encounter with the small & perfectly formed furry fighting machine, I remained sceptical at the intent of the attack. Perhaps it was my caring & trusting nature but I just did not think that these cute, cuddly animals could be anything but.....well, cute & cuddly! However, events were about to make me wonder if this were really true!

A few days after 'initial contact' I started noticing strange things happening around me! At first I took these strange goings on as coincidence but I soon came to realise what I was dealing with! It started with rustling in the bushes, the feeling that someone was watching me, I suddenly started to notice small woodland creatures sitting on the side of the road watching me as I went by! Rabbits would stop their foraging & sit up to watch what I was doing, deer would hide in the long grass with just their heads visible constantly observing everything! Now had I not had my previous encounter I would not have taken any notice of these, basically natural occurrences, & indeed I did not take any notice at the time but the events which occurred later on in the week would make me think back to the things I had seen!

The setting was similar to the 'initial contact', a quiet afternoon, nothing extraordinary in the trip so far, no reason for me to feel anything was about to happen! This time I had just entered the park from the Roehampton end & was heading towards the Kingston gate past the golf course, the road was clear & quiet. As I turned a particularly large bend I noticed 2 or 3 small shapes in the distance, as they were evidently not on the road there was no need for me to make any changes in my driving. I got round the bend & the shapes had disappeared. As I sped up I notice out of the corner of my eye a squirrel sitting on the side of the road on my right, now at this point you may start to doubt my story but all I can do is to swear to you this IS how events unfolded! The squirrel on my right started to run towards the road on a collision course with my scooter. To counter this I, as any good driver would, slowed down to allow the squirrel to cross without harm, at this point I noticed 2 more squirrels heading towards me this time from the left hand side of the road. The squirrel on the right altered its run to account for my slowing down & I was now heading for all out carnage with 3 kamikaze squirrels which looked intent on doing some damage. It was at this point that my advanced driving training kicked in & I managed to use a cunning little drop of the shoulder & hard on the accelerator to shimmy my way through the on coming attack! As I shot by these furry warriors I looked back to see all 3 sitting just off the road, watching me accelerate away! Good try you woodland fiends but you'll have to get up pretty early to get me, I thought!

Now, if years of watching Hollywood blockbusters have taught me anything its the fact that the person who gloats & doesn't pay attention to whats going on around them invariably gets 'knocked off' first! Hindsight is a wonderful thing but, as the nature of the word suggests, comes all too late! I wish I had learnt from my misspent youth as this attach turned out to have been a decoy & the real attack was to come from an altogether more worrying source!

All of a sudden I was aware of a rushing of wind past my head, a ruffling of feathers by my ear & a loud 'aaarrrrgghh' coming from above! I was being attacked from the sky by mysterious black foes intent on sending me off the road to my doom! The crows continued to attack, 2 of them diving at me & pulling up just at the last minute tapping my helmet with their beaks & feet! Now, if I was climbing a tree where there might have been a nest then this sort of behaviour may have been natural, if I had been standing too close to the birds food source then I still may have taken this as a case of protecting their domain but this was on the road with me moving! How could this be? The vicious attack continued for what seemed like minutes ( probably no more than a few seconds but my imagination is rife & I am a man!), but as quickly as it started so it ended & my assailants were gone!

I was shaken & made my way as quickly as I could to the exit & safety! As I got close to the gate I dared to look back & once again all I could see was a lone squirrel sitting in the road, an evil grin on its small furry face! The squirrels had involved the other woodland creatures in our war, the stakes had been raised, now it was personal!!