- On Friday, Katy Morlok left some old pears outside for the squirrels in her Minnesota neighborhood to enjoy.
- Morlok posted a video of a squirrel enjoying the pears, which she later realized had likely fermented after they appeared to leave the animal tipsy.
- The squirrel can be seen swaying back and forth in Morlok’s YouTube video, which has been viewed over 102,000 times.
- “People, don’t be like me,” Morlok wrote in an email to Insider. “Clean out your fridge before the fruit ferments.”
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
A squirrel in Minnesota went a little too hard a little too early this Thanksgiving season after eating some fermented pears.
Katy Morlok of Inver Grove Heights told Insider she left some old pears out for her neighborhood squirrels to enjoy on Friday, and caught one of them swaying back and forth shortly after. The squirrel appeared to be drunk.
She captured the whole event in a video, which has since been viewed over 102,000 times.
Morlok told Insider that it all started when she cleaned out her fridge.
She found some old pears in her refrigerator, and, after doing some research, decided it was OK to set one outside for the squirrels.
One squirrel, nicknamed Little Red, quickly grabbed the pear. He seemed to like it, so Morlok said she set out more. An hour later, when Little Red returned for more, Morlok noticed that Little Red appeared to be tipsy.
She realized that the pears may have been so old that they fermented, telling Fox 9 that she had not intended to get the squirrel drunk.
"And then it kind of dawned on me…oh no, those pears were so old I bet they fermented," Morlok told Fox 9. "And then he got drunk and I did not mean to do that so I went out and I grabbed all the pears."
But not without taking a video first. The minute-long video shows Little Red on a miniature picnic table eating the pears.
As he enjoys his snack, he begins to lean back. Just before he tips over, he snaps back to reality and immediately begins the cycle of nearly falling over again.
Commenters shared that the tipsy squirrel gave them a great laugh.
"This just made my morning. It's good to know I'm not the only one who can't handle the sauce," one person wrote.
Morlok told Insider that feeding squirrels has become a fun pastime during the lockdown.
While Morlok has been feeding the squirrels in her neighborhood since 2019, she said it's become an even bigger hobby since she began working from home in April.
"Watching the squirrels brings me such joy," she said.
As for Little Red, the squirrel may have just had a minor hangover.
Morlok said Little Red came back to the feeder the next morning and seemed fine: "This was an accident with a happy ending."
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