The first house that I grew up in had a creek behind the yard with large, majestic oaks full of plump acorns and hungry squirrels. I managed to tame a few of them and as a result, we enjoyed regular visits with one another on our back porch. The boldest of them was about the size of a house cat (or so it seemed to me at the ripe age of ten) who eventually started coming into the house for food. Thankfully, my parents were understanding of my obsession and permitted this activity without much concern.
When I was twelve my parents moved us to a larger house that didn't have squirrels in the backyard, so I insisted that my father take me to Strybing Arboretum in Golden Gate Park (San Francisco, for the geographically naïve) to further my obsession. I noted the presence of other people -- mostly retired folks -- who shared my love of sciuridae. My friend Grant chatted once with an older woman who wisely opined that all park squirrels are named "Charlie," and that is why they came running to her when she called them by name. The tree dwellers in the park were far more brazen than the ones from my backyard: they would climb directly up your leg and explore pockets and hands until they found what they were looking for. Later on, I realized that they had taught me a useful dating skill.
While living in Cupertino, California (during the salad days of my previous employer) I befriended a couple of squirrels. They quickly realized they had a mark and were visiting every day in search of peanuts. One of them had a peculiar method of awakening me early in the morning when she wanted food: crawling onto the screen door and shifting her body back and forth until it rattled. Sometimes she would accompany this with urinating -- if the sun was just right and I wasn't cranky from the previous evening's cheap wine, it was sort of like performance art at the crack of dawn.
Until April, 2008 I had never seen a live squirrel in all of France despite fairly extensive travels throughout the country. I asked a waiter in a restaurant once why such sightings are rare, and he told me that it was because they had eaten them all. I can only imagine the answer I would have received had I posed the question in a fur shop.
It is reassuring to know that I am not the only one afflicted with 'rodentia':
- Squirrel Fishing: Advanced scientific research from the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. Props to Nikolas Gloy and Yasuhiro Endo for the great photo which was used to create the logo for sciur.us
- Scary Squirrel: Hot treetop action! They're hot for your nuts! (I want the administrators of this site to share whatever recreational substances they ingest before coming up with this stuff)
- All Squirrels Must Die: Official homepage of the Squirrel Defamation League
- Wikipedia: Who knew that squirrels have brought down the NASDAQ twice?
