Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Squirrel study, part I

My friend Janell has done it again. This week, her nature study involves Mama Squirrel. Enjoy!

"Spring is here, spiders are making beautiful vaselike egg cases and squirrels are lining their burrows with ... toilet paper.

"At the beach, I have noticed the ground squirrels filching TP from the public bathrooms and bringing it into their homes, where I am assuming they shred it up into fluffy white beds for their babies. So today I helped things along and offered Mama Squirrel a long strip of TP...



"She eagerly accepted, and rapidly began to cram the entire amount into her facial pouches.





"She quickly transported the goods to her cave, and came out for more. Kept putting out longer and longer strips, and she kept cramming and storing.

"I plan to come back and set up a full roll on a stand--and will film her response to infinite toilet paper.

"Stay tuned ... There might be a lesson in all of this."

1 comment:

Mary Strachan Scriver said...

We once had an albino Richardson's ground squirrel for a pet. She was loose in the house (so long as the cats were outside) and when spring came she decided to make a lair under what we called in those days "a hi-fi cabinet." The space was just barely tall enough for her to slide under. She, too, thought TP was just the thing to line a nest and soon we were startled by TP unrolling out of the bathroom, down the hall and through the room to the cabinet. Her only problem was that sometimes she got such a big mouthful that on re-entry her head was too big to go through the opening. So she rammed and rammed and rammed until the TP must have softened and flattened. Then under she went, pulling the unbroken roll under with her.

Housekeeping can be a real headache.

Prairie Mary