Snowflake the Squirrel

If you're a regular reader of Shear Bagatelle you'll know that -- well -- I'm just a teensy bit nuts when it comes to animals. And now that we don't have any critters in the house, I've turned my attention to the critters in the yard.

Over the years, we've managed to attract lots of birds intentionally (sunflower seeds, thistle, suet, peanuts, cracked corn) and deer unintentionally(hostas, tulips, lilies).

Recently, when Alex's best friend Boris visited us, he said, "Oh, you guys have a white squirrel." We didn't believe him, of course, because we'd never seen a white squirrel. And we'd never even heard of one, either! So imagine our surprise when we looked to see what the heck Boris was talking about, and there was a white squirrel climbing one of our trees.

Alex -- being a frustrated National Geographic photographer -- grabbed his camera and started taking shots. Surely this must be the only white squirrel on the planet! This shot would prove it to the disbelieving scientific community.

Well, it turns out that white squirrels are rare, but not unheard of. A few people at Yarnmarket have had white squirrels in their neighborhood. Okay...so we don't have the ONLY white squirrel, but we're pretty darned excited to have A white squirrel.

We're now enjoying the newest addition to our menagerie. Alex is putting out peanuts for "Snowflake" while I obsess about how the other squirrels don't seem to play with him very much, and what if a hawk should happen to see him? Right now, I'm glad it's snowing outside because he's far better camouflaged. But I'm worrying about the summer when everything turns green and Snowflake can be seen a mile away.

I really hope Alex doesn't mind when I'm out in the forest spraypainting everything white.