Sometimes squirrels lose the tip of their tail (or sometimes the whole tail entirely).
Most squirrels recover without any ill effects.
The most common causes for tail loss are fights with other squirrels or having their tail run over by a car.
This spring Lucy somehow lost the last inch of her tail.
You can see the raw wound in this picture here.
Excuse me sir? Can you spare a nut or something…
Ok, I guess a chip will do. (Don’t worry, they were unsalted chips.)
This squirrel can often be spotted hitting up pedestrians for treats on Bond St. in Toronto.
I was putting groceries away in the trunk of the car when she showed up.
She wasn’t having any luck with the other people passing by, so I opened a bag of chips for her.
One of our favorite squirrels passed away recently.
Early in May, Lucy’s coat was looking a bit rough and she seemed to have an insatiable thirst.
She would often sit right next to the tap for the hose by the back of the house and lick the condensation off the pipe.
She had a single baby this season–a really small brindle coloured squirrel.
While she wasn’t looking too great, many squirrels moult in the spring and there were others whose coats looked even worse so we didn’t worry about it too much.
She was showing up daily in the back yard, eating nuts and bringing her baby along on some days, and like we said earlier, drinking from the hosetap.
We left for a long weekend, and when I got back and opened the back door, she rushed into the kitchen and looked at us as if to say: “Where were you guys!”
I fed her a pile of sunflower seeds, she scarfed them down, and that was the last time we saw her.
Here is the last picture we have of her. Not a great picture, but including it here for the record.
Lucy the squirrel, last sighted May 23, 2012.
Piggy is such a friendly little guy.
He’s about two years old now.
Here’s a short video of him eating cashews on our back fence.
The Douglas squirrel is a close relative of the Red Squirrel.
In Canada it is only found in British Columbia.
Here is a snapshot of one in Whistler Village.
The Douglas Squirrel, and its cousin the Red Squirrel, are ‘Pine Squirrels’ that prefer mature coniferous forests.
Most days they spend the morning cutting pine cones from the trees and then spend the afternoon gathering them from the forest floor into large caches.
You can usually tell a pine squirrel has been around by the pinecone litter they leave behind.
Like the more familiar Red squirrel they have a fiery temper and will often scold you from high up in a tree when you enter their territory.
