Everyone knows that one of the first rules of hiking on a public trail is to never feed the wild animals. This may seem cruel to some, but the reality is that when you feed an animal out in the wilderness, they may take that to mean that every human they come into contact with will feed them, leading to some chance encounters with very unhappy endings. Sure, I'd love to feed the geese that call the road along my commute to work home, but then I remember how the sidewalk is already littered with their...er, contributions to society, and think better of it.
A similar situation happened to one hiker in the Grand Canyon over the weekend, when a squirrel took a liking to him.
"Visited the Grand Canyon today and this little fella kept following me, think he was thirsty!" Reddit user nevelea shared on Sunday.
See! Animals get dehydrated, too!
Reddit users were quick to criticize the friendly hiker, insisting that "squirrels always backwash" and said not to reuse the bottle because squirrels "carry the bubonic plague." Whether these things are true or not, I do not know. But either way, this is pretty darn cute.