One time my coworker was trying to feed this squirrel and it was interested in the food but uncomfortable with the dude so it kept looking back and forth between me and this guy before coming up to me and grabbing my pant leg. Then he tugged and looked up and me. It felt like he wanted me to feed him instead. This pissed me off because I was just there and was not offering anything. I don't know why the squirrel thought it could ask that of me or how it knew to do so. Following this incident, I started telling them to stay away from my coffee and to not touch my stuff.
And even though I felt like feeding them was a bad idea because we work with dogs, everyone else did it so I occasionally did too, right. I was so normal about it, though. I never tried to feed them out of my hand or get them to follow me. I just left food out. I'd seen them take food from my coworkers hands, so I knew it was an option, but it always felt like breaking a boundary. And also dirty.
One day I went out to feed the squirrels and one of them was already right there. I'd seen these guys take the peanuts from other people and run back into the bushes a million times. I didn't really think about. It didn't occur to me that he might just put both his squirrel hands on me and hold eye contact. I hated it. I started getting scared it had distemper or rabies or something. He didn't even take the fucking peanut. I left. I decided I was never feeding the squirrels ever again and also that I hated them.
A bit later one of the squirrels fell into the yard the way I always warned everyone it would. I work at a dog park. The squirrels don't come asking for food anymore.