Miracle or mishap?

Years from now, no doubt, students at the Meoncross School in the UK will still be talking about the purple squirrel.

So will their teachers.

What appears, in every other way, to be an eastern grey squirrel, has become a semi-regular at the school, and may likely even have a better attendance record than many of the pupils enrolled there. "Pete," as he has been named, showed up during one of the lessons, outside a window, and immediately stole the show from teachers with his bright purple fur.

Purple squirrels, in human-resources parlance, simply do not exist. HR professionals refer to the ideal job candidate as being a "purple squirrel" because they perfectly fit every description of the job being advertised. And as most job-seekers will tell you, that just doesn't happen in the real world. Talents abound everywhere, but no one has it all!

And now, here is Pete, perfectly fitting the description of a squirrel who has miraculously become a Rodent of a Different Color, charming faculty and students alike and, of course, distracting everyone from their lessons.

It's possible he got into some toner, chewed on a bottle of ink or.....fell into some paint. It's possible there is a reasonable explanation for this, and hopefully, for Pete's Sake, not a toxic one.

Or he could be a miracle. Do people still believe in those?

The answer will come during the spring moulting season. Stay tuned, as the fur begins to fly.

Double the luck

The good news out of Texas, as reported by the Dallas Morning News, is that the University of North Texas is doubly blessed this week. Since 2002 the campus has been graced by at least one albino squirrel, a fact of life the students take as seriously as their final exams.

But this week they discovered a second one - perhaps an offspring of the first? And campus denizens couldn't be any happier as if the football team had scored a shutout in the homecoming game.

No, for sure, this kind of event is an even more joyous one because, in the paws of a rare squirrel such as these two, every single acorn is guaranteed to score a touchdown!

Here's the story:

For the first time in the history of the University of North Texas, two albino squirrels have taken residence near the intersection of Avenue A and Eagle Drive.
UNT faculty and students alike have honored the albino squirrel since the first was discovered on campus in 2002. Some students believe they will receive a passing grade if they see one of the white creatures on their way to a midterm or final exam.
It’s unusual for UNT to have two albino squirrels together, said Melody Kelly, associate dean of the UNT Libraries and an albino squirrel enthusiast.
The discovery of Baby’s Baby and his unnamed white-haired juvenile friend was confirmed earlier this month when the two were photographed by K.T. Shiue, a computer support specialist and webmaster at the university.
The university is taking suggestions for the new squirrel’s name

Speaking of (and speaking to) squirrels

From North Carolina, the state that seems to have cornered the market on Eastern Gray Squirrels, comes this report, "Squirrel speak: it's more than just noise."

The state, which takes credit for the species' origin or at least the earliest records of its existence, is proud to have the eastern gray as its official animal. Better still, this North Carolina student newspaper, the Technician, in which the article appears, is going a long way toward fostering interspecies communication. It may yet give rise to a whole new career field: squirrel linguistic interpreter.

Squirrel speak: it's more than just noise - Features

Robo-rodent

Even in his tough guy "Terminator" role, Arnold Schwarzenegger might not know how to resist the nut-begging antics of this one Amherst, Mass. squirrel: Rocky the Robotic Squirrel is part of a behavioral experiment undertaken by scientists at Hampshire College. And he has a lot in common with Arnold because he is a mechanized life form (without the trademark angry scowl of AHHHHNOLD's "Terminator" role). Perhaps we should call him The Squirrinator.

As he twitches his limbs and barks his prerecorded squirrel noises, his every movement is computer-controlled by researchers watching, through their binoculars, from not too far away.

(Here's the link to the story, http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jvzEsptLwUXYQOaQm5WrTA_8e-cwD90DNC501,
graciously provided by Poetikat, who has proven herself time and time again to be a true lover of squirrels, both furred and robotic.)

Rocky's mission is to interface with the real live locals, flick his tail, stamp his feet and crack the code (if not a few nuts as well) on how the local bushytails communicate. You would think in a New England college environment, the curriculum on this campus might simply opt to offer Squirrelese in their Department of Foreign Languages, instead of having to resort to such extremes. I guess, however, Rocky was born (or constructed) to learn the lingo through "language immersion."

The question remains: Once Rocky has gotten an "A" for his efforts and compiled the lexicon, what next? Perhaps Hampshire can offer adjunct professorships for some of the more eloquent squirrels living on campus - with Rocky, because of all his efforts, presiding over them as chairrodent of the department?

So he's not the Squirrinator after all. Just another "Nutty Professor."

Disappointed in my alma mater

This story, accessed through the link pasted below, comes from my alma mater, the University of Maryland, and its online version of the campus newspaper, The Diamondback. It offers gruesome details, and a rather unpleasant photo, of a campus hawk devouring a squirrel.

Swooping in for the squirrels - News

What's the point of such blow-by-blow detail? And there's a photo, made even more reprehensible by this ignorant quote from an onlooker:

"We were watching the hawk and all the stress kind of flows away," Volack said. "Everyone's attention was taken off of their problems to watch an act of nature."

Sure, watching "squirrel guts" (as one observer put it) splattered all over the place is a big stress reliever. We should all do it more often when we get strung out. In fact, let's offer up a few squirrels on a regular basis to the campus hawks because, God knows, campus life is so damn stressful.

I'm not often ashamed to be a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park. But right now I feel like turning my diploma so it faces the wall.

On campus, another tragedy

Much earlier in this blog, I'd reported the news of a white squirrel who met with a senseless death outside a Wisconsin elementary school. The animal was much-loved and the killing - a malicious act by someone in the area - was preventable.
This story referenced below, which marks the death of another beloved white squirrel, took place on a college campus and was not as avoidable, sorry to say, and might even be called a fact of nature: Whitey the squirrel was killed by a hawk. His white fur probably made him an easier mark than most squirrels.
I'm not a fan of hawks by any stretch of the imagination - they kill squirrels and other small animals below them in the food chain - and I find the article's accompanying photo upsetting and gruesome.
It's hard to love nature sometimes.

South Oval-kill - Campus

When squirrels watch us!

It's something of a comfort to see the good folks at Northwestern University watching squirrels watching us. It's even more of a comfort when a respected educator and researcher conducts a class on animal behavior and determines what a lot of us rehabbers have known all along - squirrels, as a prey species, are not an attack species. Still and all, when that finding comes from the academic world, we can all appreciate it that much more.

Squirrels at NU: Are they nuts? - Campus

So squirrels think we humans are animated vending machines? What's so bad about that?
Besides, I could use the extra coins.

Senseless killing

I don't want to understand the human race anymore. Especially after reading a story like this, which appeared in the Green Bay, Wisc. Press-Gazette today:

Albino squirrel, mascot for Green Bay's Tank school, found dead

A white squirrel that became the mascot for Tank Elementary School on Green Bay's near west side is dead.
George Bolssen, who lives near the school, said the squirrel was found in Tank Park Tuesday and appeared to have been shot.
"I think it's terrible," Bolssen said. "You shouldn't be shooting in the city."
Bolssen said the squirrel was taken to the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary by the Department of Natural Resources, but he hopes it can eventually be returned to the school.
"I want to try to get it back and have it stuffed and given to the school," Bolssen said.
Teachers at Tank school formed a White Squirrel Club and named the squirrel Al Bino.
The squirrel was seen frequently in the park, which is located next to the school.
— Press-Gazette

What was someone's point in taking the life of this small creature? He was harming no one, and his only crime was that he was deeply treasured for his uniqueness. He was loved (and even named) by children at a nearby school. He served as their inspiration. Imagine that, if you will.

And so, a lot died with this little fellow when that fatal bullet struck him. A lot died for the children who loved him, and a lot died for those of us who read the news report about the death of a single white squirrel who lived in a park in Wisconsin.

My only hope is that the squirrel is eventually buried and can return to nature, rather than endure further indignity at the hands of humans.