and I am trying to gauge how intentional it was... because it looked intentional.

Our back yard has 13 trees lining the edges and is fenced. There is also an above ground pool toward the back, about 10 feet off the fence line. Tons of squirrels that my dogs love to chase. So there was a squirrel on the back fence toward the left corner. And there was another squirrel on the tree closest to the house on the right side.

Our female did the patient stalking thing toward the squirrel at the back left but every once in a while would look over toward the squirrel on the right without breaking her direction or the slow stalk. When she got to the front end of the pool she broke and I was expecting her to jump up the fence to try to get the fence squirrel. Instead she darted around the back of the pool, to the right side of the yard, and came up behind the right tree as fast as she could and out of the sight of the "right tree" squirrel. She barely missed it as it realized she had come from the back of the tree just at the last possible moment.

I was impressed with her cunning... was it all planned out?

If you are interested to know, my male was useless in this whole event. He just sat on the back patio watching the whole thing unfold but with no intention of lifting a paw to help.