Time once again to pay special honor to those cute critters who seem to scamper everywhere. The National Wildlife Federation suggests you share your “squirrel stories.” Perhaps a squirrel helped you with your homework. Or cosigned an auto loan. Whatever it was, tell us how squirrels affected your life.
Photographic appreciation by Tomi Tapio.
Well, all I have to do on any given day is to look out the window and observe how our neighborhood skwirrl is emptying out the bird feeder……!!!!!
(As far as appreciating him, I rlly do,
becuz he is so silly, he doesn’t fail to give me a laugh or two:
So OK, Mr. Flicker Tail, I lurve you, despite your thievery: you gotta eat, too…)
I love Squirrels. I always have. In Union Square park I was feeding the squirrels one day and had one scamper up to me, take the peanut out of my hand, site down and hold my finger while he delicately ate the peanut. It was the most amazing thing I’d ever experienced with a wild animal. He didn’t scratch or try to bite and when he was done, he scampered away.
Union Square Park! I don’t know, Des, I’d be careful with those New York skwerls. They go around shaking people down for protection peanuts.
I’m from New York myself and tend to agree. An associate and I were walking in Central Park and got jacked for our nuts. She was eating shelled peanuts and I was eating cashews. All of a sudden a cute little squirrel came down the side of a tree on our left, stopped at the base and just stared at us. As we adored the little fella, another one scampered from around another tree on our right; then another appeared in front of us on the path. We both looked at each other, laughed and turned to go back the way we came. Turning, we were greeted by the don of the group, waiting behind us. I told her “drop the nuts and run, girl!” We hauled booty with what little nuts we had left, only to be followed by the guido nut brigade! LOL! We made it to safety near duck pond, and laughed until our sides hurt.
So, yeah, you gotta be careful with those New Yorker squirrels.
Makes me think of the tame skwrls in Hyde Park in London. Little guys were so used to being fed by sightseers they’d come right up to you all tame-like. All I had with my was dried apricots – I gave one to the skwrl who approached me and he turned up his nose and gave me the dirtiest look, like, “What’s this slop you’re trying to pawn off on me, you Yank tourist?” Then, I took his picture, and the flash must have blinded him for a second – he shook his little head, glared at me again, and buggered off.
SO heart-warming, eh??
My local squirrels give me ‘thumbs’ up when I go on my neighborhood walks. Kind of like they are my own personal cheerleaders!
Rah Rah Rah
I LOVE Squirrels!
We went camping in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada in the early 80′s and every morning no later that 8 o’clock, the squirrels and chipmunks would be sitting on and around our picnic table screaming for their breakfast on peanuts. They would come right up, and take their peanut from our hands. Cutest little alarm clock ever!
Isn’t Banff the Original Home of The SquirrelBomb?
Also, “what’s the deal” with the NAME “Banff”??????
Or is it just an actual last name of some person from Wales ??
Right island, wrong country.
From Wikipedia: “The area was named Banff in 1884 by George Stephen, president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, recalling his birthplace in Banffshire, Scotland.”
thankye Mum
My three squirrels, known by me as Happy, Hoppy, & Cutie, Give me joy and a grateful heart especially on those very down days. All 3 are pretty tame. They know where the peanuts comes from! But Hoppy-she’s (dunno-just assuming a she) is beyond. She started coming up to my front picture window and looking in. I also have 5 cats and a dog. Quit amusing to see the up and down head bobs. Cats look out ,Hoppy bobs down. Hoppy looks in, cats bob down. Couple months ago< i guess I was not responding fast enough to throw out some nuts so she knocked on my front door. Yes-she knocked! More like a scraping. The animals & I looked at each other like "what is that?" Then a THUMP. She attached herself upside down to the picture window screen looking in as if saying"Hey-come on already! Open the door & throw out some grub!" This is now a common occurance at my house. They know when I get up & start moving around. Esp. Hoppy. She now comes right to the door & tries to poke her head inside. Or stands on the cement step and stretches to look in. I have to tell her to back up so I can open the door. My cats & dog couldn't believe their eyes at first. Sort of like, "Ummm.does that thing know we could eat her?" Now, they're like, "Whatever. It's just the squirrel again" There are also outside cats running around. (Which is another story. If i knew who threw them outside…..) One day, I put some food out for Charlie-who's been roaming the hood for years now, and Miss Hoppy came up behind him & I kid you not-was batting at his tail! he looked back & had a look like "oh-it's just you" I know all this sounds like some tall tale (no pun intended!) but I swear on all my 4 legged "kids" life-it is the Gods honest truth!!!!
As a friend of mine puts it “The skwerls have figured out that the cats in the window are display models only”
Ha! So true! And as far as the cats are concerned, the skwerls are a new cable TV show.
This is my sister’s worst nightmare. Squirrels breaking in the house.
Beady Eye Factor!
gah! i was going to comment on the BEF!
and that i want to nom those little ears…nom, nom, nom!!
I haven’t looked down below yet …am I the first one,
to suggest a very cautiously – attempted “boop” on his/ her little nosie???
Growing up in Soviet Russia, there was no God. So I replaced it with the Squirrel! (I was 4).. Whenever mom would be late coming home from work, being a good latchkey kid, I would spend hours (or what felt like hours) staring out of the window. Squirrel would scamper around in the tall trees. I would beg him.. “Please Mr. Squirrel make mom come home soon and bring some sweets”. Squirrel usually obliged. He makes a cool deity. I always show appreciation by feeding him or any of his representatives raisins and almonds and fighting off the evil pigeons. True story.
Sadly, there are no skwerls where I live, so I’ll have to make do with appreciating this little guy. Does it look like he’s flexing to anyone else, or is it just me?
That hovertext with those eyes? Perfection. I was touched by a squirrel once. http://www.junkdrawerblog.com/2008/07/the-squirreliest-squirrel.html
A squirrel once jumped on my brother’s head. Seriously.
As he well should have. It’s only right.
I’m sure your brother had done something, somewhere in his lifetime, to deserve it. ?
much rather have your brothers’ squirrel on my head than the teenage ‘possum who got territorial about my utility shed and dropped on my head. i believe the math goes like “possum in full swell of inertia will slide off the head of a moveable object goin’ like 90″
We have a large maple tree in our yard that is FILLED with grey squirrels (and raccoons, too, in summer — and the occasional opossum). They love to torment our dog, whose self-appointed job is to keep the premises free from squirrels. They come 2/3 of the way down the tree or sit on the wooden fence between our yard and the neighbor’s and chatter and scold her and us. She bravely charges but the cowards always run away back up the tree. She shakes her little paw at the heavens and vows to get them next time (or so it seems to me). When I was little, my best friend’s family had a squirrel that would hang on the screen on their back door—that was rather unnerving when you were trying to leave if you didn’t know it would be there. I think her little brother may have been feeding it.
1: quite nice storytelling, there, Scout!!
2: esp. enjoyed the alliterative “occasional opossum”
Why, thank you so very kindly, Fird Birfle. I am glad that there is only an occasional opossum in our “hotel d’erable.” They have something sinister in their beady little eyes…
My husband and I came together over a love of squirrels, and so I made a squirrely cake topper for our wedding!
Now THAT’s EARNEST Skwyrl Appreciation, there, peeps !!!
I would presume that THAT’s a fairly infrequent request for a wedding cake!!
Perhaps we should hold a Mr./ Ms Squirrel America Pageant!!!
Post a picture, please. You must have one.
Agreed.
A squirrel ate my wedding dress. I am not making this up. Crawl space + squirrel with teeth and claws apparently strong enough to destroy the hermetically sealed box in which it was sealed = permanent mayhem and the shock of my life. It was over a year ago and I don’t know if I’ll ever get over it.
A Møøse once bit my sister…
Signed,
Monty Python
I’ll see your sister’s moose and raise you being bitten (my own self) by a Lipizanner!
or having a banty cock named Charlie poop on yer haid!
Ees capitaleest plot by moose and squirrel!
*giggle*
Moose bites can be pretty nasty.
It’s Squirrel APPRECIATION Day
These guys were touched by a squirrel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT12MTZmJT0
There R plenty of squirrels here on Long Island , but sometimes they get into parts of your home and refuse to leave and I often hear the piter pater little feet and look up and there they are looking down at me ! I love ‘em- but not inside the building !!!
Okay, I can’t even HOPE to approach the awesomeness of Squirrel Weddingness & such. However, I can offer the following and if anybody else or your relatives can claim a Resident Squirrel who was known by a particular Name at your home &
backyard ….. sign in below.
My mother’s “little helper”, Fairfax Co., VA. went (at least, as far as my MOTHER
was concerned) by the name “Charlie”. We lived on Fort Hunt Road and Charlie resided in one particular oak tree for eight yrs. For all I know, Charlie lived there before we did and after we left VA. This was ca 1971-1979.
Crap. Now that I think about it; how the junk would I know. Charlie *could well*
have been “Charlene”??????
Signed,
A Boy named Sue.
We had a squirrel named Frances who would come when we called her name, sit on our laps and eat peanut after peanut, leaving a pile of shredded shells behind. She was awesome.
Many of our squirrels have names, it just takes a while before they let you know it. Our current top named squirrel is Browny, who is the only one at the moment who will actually come inside for a nut. I think he does it because he’s fascinated by the shoes we often have sitting next to the doorway. He’ll come in a foot or two, and once he has the hazelnut secured, he’ll sniff around at any shoes nearby, edging over to them using the standard defensive posture of standing slightly sideways with the tail out to the side, That way if the shoe attacks it may get distracted and go for his tail, not his body. He’s not interested in the shoes we’re wearing, so as best I can figure he’s fascinated and horrified that we have this pile of dismembered paws by the door.
Haven’t named any squirrels yet, but the rabbit who eats my shrubs is named ‘Stew”, and I have named the mice who have invaded the store where I work. So far we’ve had Stuart, Mick, Goober (what a personality he was!), and “Aaarghh“. Aarrgh was a very saucy fellow who really caused us all sorts of problems, as he was very bold, and very big (for a mouse). He`s the only mouse I have ever actually TRIED to kill with a broom. Luckily for him, the racks were too close together for me to get a good swing at him! I`d hate to have a mouse murder on my conscience.
All the skwrls I know are named Mr. Skwrl.
*snerk*
My favorite squirrel is the one in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”!
Just the other night I was sitting on my apartment patio (1st floor), and one of the many many squirrels that run around my complex started darting back and forth right off my porch. At first I was kind of freaked out, cause all I could see was a blur running really fast. When I realized it was a squirrel, I said “Hi squirrel”, and it immediately ran over and onto the porch, standing and looking at me from like 4 inches away. I was a little nervous, because I didn’t want to have to kick a squirrel for attacking me, and I guess I twitched, cause then HE got spooked and darted toward my door (fortunately, it was closed), then ran in circles around my patio chair, then ran off.
He hasn’t visited me since
“Come back, Squirrel !!!!”
*echoes into the valley beyond*
(even if you don’t live near a valley. Literary license, don’tcha know….)
Try eating some peanuts on the porch.
We had a neighbor squirrel by the name of Nosey who was in the habit of getting hazelnuts from me as I walked out the front door mornings. I was trying to encourage him to stay in in the back yard because of a new litter in a nursery tree in our front yard. So when he saw me walk out and came over for the nut, I tried to lead him around the house. I’d walk 20 feet, he’d follow then stop, I’d show him the nut, and he’d continue. Repeat many times until he was in the back yard, give nut. The second time he only hesitated a few times following me around. We didn’t meet again in the front yard for a week or two, until one day I walked out and saw him coming around the house. He stopped instantly, stared at me hard for a second, then turned and ran away back around the house. I shrugged and started to walk away– then stopped, thought for a second, and went back inside to the rear of the house. He was standing on the back deck railing staring in the window, with a disgusted expression (trust me, squirrels can do that). In other words, he learned the trick faster than I did.
Greg, you taught him only too well! Y’made me laff very loud indeed! Lol, lol, lol!
Yeah, some squirrels I’ve seen could give disapproval lessons to rabbits.
This past October I had a close encounter with a wee young skwerl. While visiting the ‘rents in MI I was hanging out in their back yard. There’s this huge old oak tree right at the end of the driveway, at the front of it Mom’s cat Butterscotch (the Ice Cream Kitteh) was napping in a bed of moss. Behind the tree I spotted a wee young black skwerl creeping along the grass heading toward the oak. He was keeping an eye on me and had no idea Butterscotch was on the other side of the tree. Well imagine his (and Butter’s) surprise when he came around the tree and practically walked on top of Butter. LOL Of course, being a cat Butter commences to chasing the young whippersnapper. But the poor lil’ guy was so frazzled that he didn’t go up the tree instead he fled toward the center of the open area of the yard, right where I was standing. All in a few seconds of time I see Butter chasing the lil’ guy right toward me, and I had a second or two to think, “oh no he’ s going right up me with the cat too.” Images of a cat and skwerl battle and subsequent gashes and shots flew through my mind. Before I had any chance to really react the skwerl was already up as far as my knees (thank goodness I was wearing jeans!!) before richocheting off my knees and heading off into another direction. Butterscotch meanwhile skidded to a halt near my feet and I SWEAR looked at me with disgust before sauntering off to finish his nap elsewhere. I’m pretty sure he was thinking “Sheesh useless hoomin, I practically delivered him right into your arms and you LET HIM GO!!”
*”A thrilling new action film, from Metz Studios, to be released in Summer 2012″
is Peter Jackson directing? o, wait, that’s “Halo”. Soon to be “Halo 2, the revenge of Master Chief against all those Flood squirrels”
My father, who passed on last May, loved to sit in the back yard and feed the squirrels. My mother would buy peanuts especially for the squirrels. To this day, she leaves the pumpkin on the front porch for them to “feast” on. The squirrels around here are really quite take, and very well fed!
Tame…I meant TAME!
I love Squirrels! About 6 years ago I was living in an apartment block with an underground garage and upon leaving my car to head to the door outside (no interior access to building) I saw a grey squirrel prancing about near the door. He very warily watched me as I went to the outside door. I knew he’d not get out so I held the door and stood almost behind it with daylight streaming in. The squirrel looked at the door, looked at me, looked back at the door, looked back at me. Then (you could almost see him gathering his courage) he bolted for the door and freedom. I felt I’d done my good deed for the day
YAY LauraH !!!
A baby squirrel painting I made!
http://www.etsy.com/listing/77963315/framed-squirrel-painting-baby-nursery
In my neck of the woods, great fun watching baby squirrel harass the bluejays away from the seed I’d scattered on the ground. This lil’ cutie chased a big, brassy bluejay around in circles, until the jay finally did birdy thing and flew away.
I’ve seen squirrels for sale in pet stores in Japan! I hope they were tame
Those stores had the craziest stuff. I saw large owls, small owls, a hawk, groundhogs, and gigantic rabbits. Once I saw a small pony wearing a saddle in the back of a pet store. It was behind glass where a dog might have been kept. This was on the 2nd floor of a mall. The storekeeper got mad when I tried to take a picture.
The squirrels provide motivation for my dog. If the dog hesitates to go out because it is cold or rainy, I need only say, “squirrel!” and he’s out the door in a flash whether or not there is actually a squirrel there.
Squirrels poop on my deck! I hate to sound unappreciative but I could live without their offerings.
Never seen squirrel poop. Wow,
In front of the Houston museum of science, I pointed a a squirrel who had half a tail, presumably because he narrowly missed getting run over by a car. He scurried up and bit my finger, but not before I snapped a picture mid-bite, with his mouth wide open! Luckily he didn’t draw any blood, but only nipped my thumbnail.
I am completely verklempt because I don’t have a single amusing, insightful, inspirational or scary skwirrl story to relate. *whimper*
I was just saying to myself…”But I don’t have any cute skwerl stories!” Nice to know I’m not alone though.
One time, I threw out a few stale bagels under the tree in the yard – for the birds and squirrels. I watched a squirrel try to bite the bagel (which was about half his size!) and carry it, with no luck – he tried to move forward and it just was in his way. Finally, amazingly, he flipped it UP, onto his head, and scampered away with a bagel hat! I wish I would have had a camera handy!
i give stale oreos to our squirrels. i suspect they are a tad disappointed in the fall when they go to dig up their treat and find only a chocolate stain. *sniffle*
Love squirrels and think they’re adorable
My part of the neighborhood is pretty new so no big trees for them to make a home in. We get the occasional one in our backyard though and I love watching them. They’re such cute little critters.
There is a squirrel who shows up in my mother’s yard, under the cover of some low-hanging shrubby things, and I kid you not, does what can only be described as a squirrelly version of parkour. You know the running, jumping, leaping thing people do in urban environments? He does this off the base of trees and shrubs and a few rocks. He, for it’s definitely a he, is literally flipping out. It’s very funny and very fast and the word that comes to mind when I see it, is joy – I think he just feels good!
I love squirrels! A few years ago when I was vacationing in Boston, I would begin my morning at the Boston Commons with a pack of peanut butter crackers. Those Boston squirrels would jump on the park bench I was sitting on to get their noms. I had one guy get on my lap and grab the pack of crackers out of my hands because I was too slow. Love those squirrels!
I fed one squirrel some peanuts one day outside my glass patio door. I named him “Patrick”, now Patrick comes to the glass patio door and knocks on the door, I open it up and give him a peanut or acorn. He sits a looks at me as he eats as a friendship gesture, and I drink my coffee and we enjoy each others company all morning. Now Patrick has invited 7 of his squirrel friends and about 5 blue jays to our morning ritual. Now, I worry about them when its cold and rainy, funny how a little friendship opened my mind to all the animals around our place, so precious and so innocent.
We had one in our woodstove pipe last summer. He got in through the small opening on our chimney and I heard him slide down the pipe and scrabble about a bit, unable to get out, poor little chap. Finally we disconnected the pipe and then left a bowl of water near the opening, and left our front door open and went out for a quick bite to eat. When we got back, he appeared to have gone, and our neighbors saw him on the lawn, looking a bit shell-shocked, but otherwise completely unharmed. He didn’t even leave us any little “presents” in the stove pipe, bless him!!
As a teen, I raised a squirrel that had fallen from its nest in a storm. I named him Thaddius Tidbit Squirrel. Loved him. I even had him checked by a vet and given a rabies injection. It was a wonderful time in my life.
My BF loooves squirrels – which he nicknames fuzzy-whirls, fuzzles for short. He made an animation featuring a cute squirrel and it helped him get into grad school! (see it here http://www.fuzzyacorn.com/ )
Thanks fuzzy-whirls!
(Also, the squirrel scene from national lampoons xmas vacation continues to be my family’s favorite random movie reference. )
I’ve snapped a few New York City squirrel photos in the past. Here are some of the best ones:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zmustapha/sets/72157625751033267/
While I was visiting a friend, I got to meet the squirrel that lived in their front yard tree. He would come up to the front door until someone opened it, then he would gladly take a piece of buttered toast (Yes, he would ONLY eat buttered toast) from the palm of your hand. I loved that picky little door-to-door beggar.
While I do love me some squirrelly cuteness, they have been the bane of my existence at the room at my parent’s house…a bunch of them decided the warm attic above my room would be a delightful place to live. And apparently a delightful place to dig…their constant scratching drives me crazy, and more than once they have gotten through the ceiling with tiny little holes, their paws popping through from time to time.
I forgot to tell about my dog’s most infamous squirrel incident. Knowing how much our buddy loved chasing squirrels in the yard, my Mom gave us some Christmas tree ornaments featuring resin squirrels in various poses. The dog had never tried to eat anything off the tree in all the years we had had her before we had these ornaments. Since they were unbreakable we hung them lower on the tree, along with other sturdier ornaments, in case the dog might accidentally knock one off as she walked by. Imagine our surprise one evening when, upon returning from an evening out, we saw chewed up debris on the floor all around the tree. Upon closer inspection of the remains and the tree, we discovered that they were all the remains of the squirrel ornaments — and ONLY the squirrel ornaments! She hadn’t bothered any other ornaments (including one made from a dog biscuit), nor had she bothered the wrapped dog chew under the tree. That kind of weirded us out.
Mr. Boogs visited us in Evanston, IL. He came to our window, knocked on the glass with one paw and backed off a bit to receive peanuts. He visited every day until we were stopped – cease and desist – by the landlord who said the squirrel was making a mess. Alas! It was very hard to hear Mr. Boogs knocking and not be able to respond.
I had the happy opportunity to save a baby boy squirrel and return him to his anxious mom. He and his brother were blown out of their nest and I came up them. It was too late for the brother, but junior was still alive but stunned. I put on my leather gardening gloves and scooped him up. He started chirping like a siren and it’s then I spotted mom on the fence, swishing her tail. I went to the base of the tree and stood for a minute or so gently massaging junior to make sure he was ok and to warm him up. I then put him down at the base of the tree, looked around for mom to make sure she saw me do that, then walked away. I went back a few minutes later and sure enough, junior was gone. I still look around hoping to find a young squirrel who might be junior. I really hope he made it!
“YAY, trixandsam”
*engages pompoms furiously*
When I was a kid we had a whole family of squirrels living under our roof. We used to put seed and nuts outside the kitchen window. Such a good thing to eat breakfast to! Then a giant rat took over the squirrel table, moved in under the house (it dug a looong tunnel) and the squirrel feeding was over
Somehow, this seems to be a profound symbolic tale / parable ….
My squirrel video adventures:
Beautiful beast! Lucky human! I’m envious. What’s “a wiley”?
Cute squirrel talk for this particular squirrel, named Wiley. We have a rotating cast of squirrels that come to our backyard from season to season, but Wiley keeps coming back, and this summer will be her third getting sure-thing sunflower seeds and walnuts from us.
She’s an old mama squirrel, for sure.
Sure she is an Old Mama Squirrel – you can count the neat lil buttons she wears on her overcoat – all Mama Squirrels have those. My best thoughts to the lil ol’ lady, long should she live !! to enjoy your Hospitality – my Squirrels in the UK like Monkey Nuts and Huntley and Palmers Digestive Biscuits – they are a bit like Graham Crackers but possibly sweeter. Thanks guys these stories are so precious
He let you touch him! Or her!
How cute!
I was in DC with my boyfriend several years ago and we were feeding the squirrels next to the white house. One of the squirrels dropped a cheeto and when he went to pick it up, the squirrel lunged at him and made a funny little squeaky noise. Don’t mess with those gritty urban squirrels. They don’t mess around!
Even Capitol Skwyrls be gettin’ ghetto, these days ….
I have Ninja Squirrels that live in my backyard:
By the way, I’m loving Mike’s suggesh that a Skwyrl might have helped us with
our schoolwork …..Such a quirky mind, this fellow Mike has ….
The squirrels at college were partly carnivorous. One stole an entire raw chicken breast from a barbecue. Another time they pelted students with bacon.
“Another time they pelted students with bacon.”
Wow, a gang of carnivorous squirrel delinquents. 0_0
Mine’s not much of a story, but it’s why I’ve liked squirrels for years. I was a brand-new mom 15 years ago and I had no idea what I was doing. I was up at 2 am with my daughter, and I was crying because I couldn’t get her back to sleep and I was exhausted. Finally she fell asleep, but I was too tired, so right about when the sun was rising and I was at my lowest, a little squirrel hopped up on my back fence right where I happened to be looking, and I swear to God, that little guy WAVED AT ME. I had a nice laugh, because it seemed to well-timed. I’m sure he wasn’t waving, but I choose to believe he did and he was telling me all would be well.
We have big trees close to the house both in back and in front. So as I lay awake in bed in the morning, I often hear the “THUMP skitter skitter skitter” of a squirrel jumping from a tree to the roof and scampering across it. Once we figured out what that noise was, it has never failed to give me a smile!
Squirrelzilla, the neighborhood “treerat” owned the dog, she knew just how far his chain would go and always stayed 3 ft further away. Even the cats knew better than to mess with her. Then Humans? We fed her just like the rest of our pets.
Ok so here on our campus we have squirrels that are huge. I kid you not, and they’re not too afraid of people. Well one day I was hanging out with a friend on the school diag, she was eating her breakfast bagel and this squirrel scampered up and took her other half, proceeded to eat it and then scampered away.
Yea, they steal your food here and throw nuts at my head
Although @katz, I wouldn’t mind being pelted with bacon…bacon at least isn’t as hard as nuts. lol.
Years ago we had a lot of nuts left over that no one wanted to crack, so they were getting old. We didn’t want to just thown the food away so we put a few at the base of a pine tree in our front yard. It didn’t take long for a squirrel to find and appropriate the nuts. Assured that the nuts wouldn’t go to waste, we put two or three out each day until we ran out a few weeks later. The day after we ran out of nuts, we heard a plaintive cry coming from our front yard. The squirrel who had been appropriating the nuts was sitting on a broken branch stub over the bare ground crying for some more nuts. He kept that up for several days until he got it into his head that there weren’t anymore. Now that suirrel’s descendents raid our bird feeders so we call them fuzzy birds.
As an adolescent I had a nightmare that battalions of squirrels where chasing me down the street. Them on the telephone lines leaping onto me and tearing into my skin with their sharp nasty teeth and claws. Thought little of it until the next time I was within attacking distance of a squirrel. I was frozen with fear. Then the town in which I attended college had a rash of mad squirrel attacks. I was not attending at the time but still visited often. I was occasionally out of my mind with fear that this mad squirrel was loose in the same small town. A police officer eventually encountered the squirrel and cornered it in an enclosed porch. He was equipped with a pellet gun for just the opportunity. He shot it. Multiple times. And restored order to the community so that students and residence and even visitors could resume their lives as they had in much happier times.
Despite the fact that I feed them corn and sunflower seeds, our squirrels also insist on eating all the pecans and peaches off our trees. They also provide entertainment and exercise for my cat, who stalks them but never catches them.
Here’s my skwirl story: Actually, I have two. 1. I was walking to work a couple of years ago and I made the huge mistake of watching a squirrel freaking out instead of watching where I was going. I stepped on a broken piece of sidewalk and broke my ankle. I was ten blocks from work, so I kept walking–didn’t know it was broken until later.
The second story is better:
At my old apartment building, every fall, the squirrels in the neighborhood tried to dig into the walls of the buildings to nest for the winter. They attacked the window sills and dug in under people’s window air conditioners. I had a little squirrel determined to make my window his home. I tried everything to get him to leave, short of getting the landlord (because he would have put out poision). So I went out and bought a little bird house and secured it on the window sill. The squirrel moved right in. A few months later, I realized he was actually a she–she had four little babies. The bird house got to be too small for them–the side split open and four little squirrel butts were sticking out of the side. I had to buy them them a bigger house.
oh my god thats so frickn cute.
My parents have a large “ornamental” rock in the middle of the myrtle bed under a tree. The rock is slightly flatish on top. For most of the day it is in the shade. On unbearably hot days the squirrels take turns spreading themselves out like a rug over this cool rock!
My backyard squirrels make my day everyday. From the early morning pitter-patter on top of my cabana to the endless hours I’ve spent learning patience trying to hand-feed them. Now I rejoice every time I see them pop their head over the fence or make their way down the redwood or even greet me in the morning outside my cabana eager for their daily offerings. I’ve made them youtube stars (with an astounding 39 views, hehe!) having named them and documented some of the most exciting interactions of my life. Fluffer Nutter in particular is very comfortable climbing up on my lap to get his peanuts, and I can not even express the precious feeling I have when he looks up at me with his little legs on mine grateful for the treasured peanut in his soft little paws.
oh i got more…2 more…
first one: we used to have a problem with squirrels living in our attic when i was a kid, so my dad got those traps that don’t kill’em but just trap ‘em. For years we’d trap ‘em put ‘em in the back of our old beat up station wagon and drive from our little town near Yonkers to the rich neighborhoods in Westchester, NY (such as Chappaqua) find a really nice gated driveway and let ‘em loose. Me and my dad enjoyed these rides together and always had a laugh when we released the squirrels into their new homes.
second one: ok heres where I probably first fell in love with them. My sister worked at a school for emotionally disturbed kids and some kids (who obviously had some issues) decided to throw rocks at a baby squirrel until they finally hit him in the head and he fell out of the tree badly injured. My sister reprimanded the boys and took the squirrel home in a box, nut sure if he was going to make it. Luckily I had a good friend whose dad was a really good vet. They took him in and fixed him up, and gave him back to us with instructions for rehabilative care with the warning to be careful as he had suffered a brain injury. This little guy was our new pet ~a slightly confused one~ he’d chase his tail and fall over sometimes while walking. We named him stymy and loved the little cuddles and squirrel kisses. One afternoon while crawling in and out of an old boot, he somehow lost part of his tail…still baffles me to this day how that happened, but I remember it happening. Anyhoo, he did finally regain most of his senses…and for weeks we’d let him run around in the yard with the other squirrels but he’d always come back inside…until one day he didn’t, …he had finally rejoined the suburban wild and knowing he was such a brave tough little guy, I was happy.
starts off slow but builds to super duper cute
I tried to make a montage with different video clips but the music was removed (whoops! bad kelly) so I apologize as this comes off slow without sound.. but there are definitely some cute parts for those who are bored