On the Second Day of Squirrel Awareness Month...

On the second day of Squirrel Awareness Month my squirrel love gave to me

Two ice cream cones

And an acorn in an oak tree

Yes, squirrels do love ice cream. If you need more proof, here it is...

Squirrel Video: With a Little Help From My Friends

For day one of Squirrel Awareness Month, I want to share one of my favorite squirrel videos. It's about a big squirrel, a young squirrel, and some human friends on the campus of UCLA. Enjoy!

On the First Day of Squirrel Awareness Month...

On the first day of Squirrel Awareness Month my squirrel love gave to me

an acorn in an oak tree!

It's time to celebrate and learn more about our bushy-tailed friends. So throughout the month of October The News For Squirrels will be offering squirrel facts and trivia, the best squirrel videos from the internet, and a new verse each day for the Thirty-One Days of Squirrel Awareness Month song!

German Squirrel Makes Dramatic Escape!

This video of a red squirrel hurling itself out of a kitchen window of an apartment in Germany has recently gone viral.




The squirrel appears to be unhurt as it is seen running in the courtyard after plummeting four stories.

A translation of the voices of the two people speaking in German can be read here.

The one question that is unanswered in the video and in the story linked above is, how did the squirrel get into the apartment in the first place?

A Soldier and His Squirrel

From the Huffington Post, here is a super-sweet story of a Belarussian army soldier, Pyotr Pankratau, and the baby squirrel that he rescued. The baby Eurasian red squirrel was near death when some of Pyotr's fellow soldiers brought it to him, and the soldier nursed him back to health. Now, two years later, out of the army and driving a cab, Pyotr and Minsk the squirrel are inseparable. While Pyotr is at work driving his cab, Minsk stays with him, sometimes sleeping in a little bed on the dash--and I have never seen a squirrel sleep on its back like that!

Theodore Roosevelt and the Flying Squirrels

Theodore Roosevelt, unlike many of today's Republicans, was known for his conservationist views and his respect for nature and wildlife. He was instrumental in the creation of the National Parks system during his presidency, in the first decade of the twentieth century. Although some of his views, such as his love of big-game hunting, are frowned upon by modern environmentalists, for his time he was definitely progressive.

Roosevelt also liked to be surrounded by animals. During his presidency, his family had more animals at the White House than any other administration. The Roosevelt pets included a bear, a lizard, a macaw, several guinea pigs, a hyena, a pony, a badger, a pig, a hen and a rooster, two cats, and rat, a garter snake, and several dogs.

The Roosevelts had a rustic cabin called Pine Knot in Virginia, where they spent vacations during his presidency. One feature of the two-story cabin was a family of flying squirrels that nested in the rafters. President Roosevelt and his wife Edith were evidently fond of the squirrels, as he wrote in his autobiography,

We loved having flying squirrels among the rafters of our cabin. At night we slept so soundly that we did not in the least mind the wild gambols of the little fellows, even when they would swoop down to the bed and scuttle across it.

And a letter written by the president in 1908 shows just how charming and amusing the Roosevelts found the flying squirrels, even to the point of annoying at least one of their friends:

Mother and I had great fun at Pine Knot. Mr. Burroughs, whom I call Oom John, was with us and we greatly enjoyed having him. But one night he fell into great disgrace! The flying squirrels that were there last Christmas had raised a brood, having built a large nest inside of the room in which you used to sleep and in which John Burroughs slept. Of course they held high carnival at night-time. Mother and I do not mind them at all, and indeed rather like to hear them scrambling about, and then as a sequel to a sudden frantic fight between two of them, hearing or seeing one little fellow come plump down to the floor and scuttle off again to the wall. But one night they waked up John Burroughs and he spent a misguided hour hunting for the nest, and when he found it took it down and caught two of the young squirrels and put them in a basket. The next day under Mother's direction I took them out, getting my fingers somewhat bitten in the process, and loosed them in our room, where we had previously put back the nest. I do not think John Burroughs profited by his misconduct, because the squirrels were more active than ever that night both in his room and ours, the disturbance in their family affairs having evidently made them restless!

I suspect that this was the last time Mr. Burroughs accepted an invitation from President Roosevelt to stay at his cabin. But that was his loss!

Hi Teddy!

October Is Squirrel Awareness Month!

This is an important time of year for squirrels! Summer is over, the weather is getting cooler, it's the time for finding, and hiding, nuts to get through the long cold winter ahead.

And it's also time for Squirrel Awareness Month.

This is the perfect time to get to know the squirrels in your yard and in your neighborhood. How best to do this? You can take a walk in the park and watch the squirrels and other animals there.

You can put food out in your own yard for the squirrels, and watch as they come to eat. WalMart and many other stores sell squirrel food mixes and dried corn to nourish your bushy-tailed friends. You can also simply put out some black oil sunflower seeds. If you have bird feeders in your yard, of course, you are well aware that squirrels are inventive at gaining access to those.

Of course, another way to learn more about squirrels is by reading The News For Squirrels. But of course that goes without saying.