Curious Squirrel

It's nuts but I love you: One squirrel's bizarre obsession with a garden statue of a dog

A squirrel's fascination with a statue of a dog has brought hours of light entertainment to a Russian suburb.

The frisky rodent looked confused as to why the dog wasn't moving and cannot seem to get its head around the fact that it is an ornament and not real.

The picture was taken by a photographer in the garden of his house just outside of Moscow.

Obsession: A red squirrel in a Moscow garden became fascinated with a statue of a dog when it couldn't work out why it did not move like a real animal

Furry Love: The squirrel eventually became affectionate with the canine ornament and planted it with a kiss

The home-owner said: 'The squirrel became fascinated by the dog; it was climbing all over the statue and seemed to be trying to work out what it was'.

He added: 'At one point the squirrel looked directly into the statue's face as if it was expecting a reaction'.

The squirrel enjoyed jumping all over the dog and going on its hind legs to get a closer look.

What are you: The photographer who captured the images said the squirrel looked directly into the statue's face as if expecting a reaction

Fun times: The squirrel enjoyed jumping all over the dog and going on its hind legs to get a closer look

The furry animal even at one point appeared to kiss the statue, leaping from a set of stairs to latch on to dog and pucker up.

With similar looking coats of orange and brown hues, maybe the squirrel felt a deep sense of familiarity with the statue although it was more than five times its size.

Showing off its acrobatic manouevres, the friendly squirrel jumped on his new pal's head and peered into its mouth, looking perilously close as if it was going to fall off at one point.

Tiring work: Exhausted after lots of acrobatics the squirrel perched on top of the dog to crunch on its nut

The squirrel managed to check out the statue all with a nut in its mouth which he crunched into when he had exhausted his inspection and needed to take a break.

Red squirrels are common throughout Eurasia but its numbers have decreased greatly because of the introduction of the eastern grey squirrel from North America.

They have a life expectancy of 3 years when living in the wild if they survive their first winter.