I found myself laughing like a goon, much like the guy in this video. This spring we had this, I forget what they're called, super runty squirrel that basically lives as an outcast from his squirrel brothers and are super cool with humans. This fucking squirrel wanted just ran up to us, completely unafraid, and actively wanted to hang out. It was probably one of the cooler things that happened in 2020.
If you're in a busy enough city the squirrels will jump on you without you doing anything, they're tamer than cats. I've had it happen a handful of times myself, but they just hang around until they know you don't have food and then run off.
The really exciting squirrel encounter I've had was a ground squirrel in rural Maine that was comfortable enough with people (it lived near a commercial campground) that if you put some seeds in your hand and held them next to its burrow it would come out and sit on your palm until you either lifted it up more than a couple feet or it finished stuffing its face and left to store them. Did it a few times a day for three days.
Also one year when I was maybe 15 my family decided to actively feed the squirrels one summer and at that point they got so calm that I saw one sitting in front of our cat and getting smacked in the side of the head over and over again while it ate. I guess it knew the cat was too domesticated to really take it on effectively, so it just put up with the smacking until it was done eating and then left.
BIking on rail-trails in Illinois I encountered many daredevil/suicidal squirrels who would sit at the edge of the trail and try to dart across the trail just as my wheel was coming up. I managed to dodge all of them, I'm glad none of them ended up tangled up in my spokes.
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