Found Squirrels: Creepy Bike Squirrel

Although I really dislike crowds, especially in Midtown Manhattan, I do always enjoy seeing the holiday windows in New York City.

And I especially enjoy the particularly whimsical and nonsensical windows, like this one, where we see a squirrel inexplicably riding a penny-farthing bicycle over the roofs of various townhouses whilst wearing a Santa hat.  I mean, why not?

Today, on a hunch, I went back to my folder full of photos from my previous phone, and finally figured out why this window seemed so familiar.  

I took this photo during my holiday window viewing in December of 2009, and I'm pretty sure this is the exact same squirrel!  Either that or multiple stores own copies of this squirrel riding a bicycle, which would just be odd.  

Found Squirrels: Squirrel Mummy

Guys, I'm so behind in my squirrel blogging!  I'm sitting here enjoying the sweet sounds of Britney Spears (she's back; did you know?) and combing through my photos from the last few months and becoming completely overwhelmed by the number of posts I need to write.  How did I let this happen?  I blame the three week period in January when I tried to give up coffee.  

Way back in December we went to the American Museum of Natural History with a friend who was visiting from out of town.  I always enjoy this museum, particularly the room that addresses the evolution of mammals.

That's some squirrel taxonomy and evolution for y'all.  Check out the sweet capybara up there.

And they had a mummified squirrel!  Poor little guy looks so uncomfortable.  But I was so pleased to see him in the museum.  Everyone is always going on and on about the freeze-dried woolly mammoths that scientists are finding all over the place.  What about the squirrels? What about the giant prehistoric beaver?  Why isn't anyone else excited about bringing back the rodents of yesteryear?

Found Squirrels: Santa Squirrel Selling His Sole for Shoes

He he, do you see what I did there?  Yeah, you do.

My new iPhone has really revolutionized the way I record squirrel stuff sightings, in a crazy way.  I used to struggle to find squirrel things to post about, and now I continually have a backlog of squirrely bits for my blog!  How is a full-time employed hermit woman supposed to keep up?!

I found this squirrel on the door of a running store (or maybe it's just a shoe store?) in Manhattan before Christmas.  I'm not particularly fond of this example of squirrels in advertising, as it appears the squirrel is either dead or "crunk," as B would say.  I recommend my treatise on the HP printer squirrel if you're interested in seeing what I think is a fantastic use of a squirrel in advertising.

Madison Avenue, take note.

Found Squirrels: Starbucks Squirrel

Why didn't anyone tell me that there were squirrels on the Starbucks holiday cups this year?!?

Found Squirrels: Bergdorf Goodman Window Squirrels

I spotted these creepy little white squirrels while we were admiring the many holiday window displays on Fifth Avenue yesterday.

Definitely creepy. And I love rodents, so I imagine most people are skeezed out by these guys.

Found Squirrels: Memory Squirrels

Oh man, how excited was I to discover this particular set of squirrels? We played Memory: Animal Families during Thanksgiving weekend at our friend E's house. Never mind that the instructions say for children ages 3 to 6 and that every single one of us is more than four times that maximum age.

I was very upset when B ended up matching the squirrel mommy and squirrel baby and adding them to his stack. And in fact I lost miserably at Memory: Animal Families, but ended up rocking it when we played the original Memory later.

Found Squirrels: Decorative Squirrel Figure

Found this little treasure in the same thrift store as the cross-stitch. I suspect that someone with rodent-loving tendencies like me has recently passed away, because this particular establishment seemed to have quite a few squirrel-themed items.

It makes me kind of happy to think that someday all of my squirrel stuff will go to a thrift store somewhere and some young lover of squirrels will freak out with joy when she sees all the awesomeness I've collected over the years. They better price my cool squirrel stuff at higher than $6, though!

Found Squirrels: Squirrel Ornament

Oh Christmas squirrel, oh Christmas squirrel! Your tail is always fuzzy!

Found in a fancy knick knack store in New Jersey. I think my new cellphone with its fancy, fancy camera is really going to revolutionize the way I blog.

Found Squirrels: Cross Stitch Squirrel

Found at a thrift store in New Jersey. Seriously considered bringing it home, but was easily distracted by a Squirrel Nutkin sticker book.

Found Squirrels: National Cathedral Squirrel

We also went to the National Cathedral while were in Washington, DC, last month. Would you believe that they have at least one squirrel included in the exterior sculptural program?!?!

My thanks go to B for locating this guy for me. It was a cold and windy day and I hadn't yet started wearing my warm winter coat so I was a little out of sorts. I was totally going to walk by him! I'm losing my squirrel touch in my old age, but it's nice to know that my spouse is keeping an eye out for me.

Found Squirrels: Natural History Squirrels

Over Thanksgiving weekend B and I went to Washington, DC, to give thanks for tater tot hotdish with some friends of our down there. We stopped by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and it was a dead squirrel bonanza in there!

Some of you may recall that my record of taking decent pictures of living squirrels is spotty at best. (They move really fast, especially when you're chasing them. It's not my fault.) Turns out taking pictures of dead squirrels is way easier.

See, there's no way I could've captured an image of a chipmunk like that in the wild. But as long as someone kills it, stuffs it, and sets it up for me I have no problem. I sense that there are photojournalism awards headed my way!

Of course, sometimes they set them up in very strange positions. Like the prairie dog above (for the slow kids in class, let me reiterate: a prairie dog is a type of ground squirrel). What is that prairie dog doing? Worshiping the sun god?

But I've saved the best for last...

OH MY GOD IT'S A FLYING SQUIRREL ATTACK! DUCK AND COVER, DUCK AND COVER! How would you feel if you saw that fuzzy little missile headed straight toward your head in the forest, huh? You would be terrified, as would I. But don't worry, it's dead, just like the rest of the squirrels in this post.

Wow, I just realized that this is probably the first post in this blog that has pictures of all three types of squirrels!

Found Squirrels: Guard Squirrel

So I recently found out that a close relative of mine who will remain unnamed is thinking of starting a blog. She's stated this desire before, but I think she may be serious this time. This means I'm going to have to step up my game if I want to still have the coolest blog in the family.

This shall benefit you, oh loyal readers.

Anyway, I'm far too lazy to actually "step up my game" in any way that would require me going outside more frequently, so I started to get a little nervous. What was I going to post about? A series on my favorite cereals? Reviews of old SNES games which would be funny since nobody cares anymore? A diatribe on B's newfound love of the food processor?

Luckily, y'all were rescued when I visited my blog folder and discovered A WHOLE SQUIRREL ABOUT WHICH I HAD FORGOTTEN TO POST.

How could this happen? This little guys has been sitting in that folder for over a month, waiting for his moment of glory! I came upon him when my family was visiting and we were walking through the Village (as I recall, this squirrel was somewhere near Gay Street, heh).

I have seriously lost my touch if I'm letting squirrel gems like this go unpublished for so damn long. So here's hoping that I make like a flying squirrel and... hmmm... that particular simile is going nowhere.

Found Squirrels: Squirrel of Squirrels

This is absolutely the most unusual squirrel I have ever featured in my blog.

And Jesus said, "Let the little rodents come to me..." Credit goes to my mother for seeing this squirrel at the Episcopal church in our hometown. She also gets photo credit too, and lots of mother points for volunteering to be the weirdo in the church taking pictures of the squirrel stained glass window.

Seriously, does anyone out there recall any scene from the New Testament in which a squirrel was mentioned as a companion of Jesus directly before his crucifixion? I used the online searchable Bible and could find not one squirrel.

Don't get me wrong, I'm rather excited to see a squirrel in religious imagery. I've found all sorts of squirrels carved into the walls of banks, but my many years of closely studying relief sculpture in churches around the world has unearthed nary a rodent (although Saint Francis of Assisi often has a squirrel companion, at least when depicted on medallions).

But seriously, this is just strange.

Found Squirrels: Ancient Playground Squirrels

I found this little dude on the gates of the Ancient Playground by the Metropolitan Museum of Art!

There is a beautiful little iron gate that leads into the Ancient Playground (I think they recently renovated this playground?) and it's based on a few of Aesop's fables. Four little squirrels stand atop the gate, keeping watch over the wee children of the park. Well done, New York City Department of Parks & Recreation!

Found Squirrels: Subway Squirrel

I found this lovely piece of squirrel art the other day while we were on our way to Governors Island on the N train.


I spied it through the dirty windows of the train and, without actually telling B what I was doing or why, I just walked right off and onto the platform. Luckily, he followed me and immediately understood when he saw me standing, wide-eyed, in front of this mosaic.
Here's the closeup. I think it's just exquisite. As an added bonus, we got to wait in front of it for like 10 minutes while we waited for the next train (B probably did not see this as a bonus). I should probably add that this was at the 8 St-NYU stop on the downtown platform.

Found Squirrels: Basket Squirrel

We went to a lovely wedding this weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I'll have to put up the rest of the pictures from the wedding on Facebook when I get a chance, but I wanted to share my squirrel sighting from that wonderful day.

This little guy was carved into the basket of hand towels in the restroom at the reception venue. And let me tell you, it was not easy finding a moment alone in the restroom to get a picture of it. I spent at least two hours running back and forth to the restroom trying to get a photo (and let's be honest, I was drinking beer too so there were many reasons for the many trips).

Found Squirrels: The Tudors

So we've been watching The Tudors lately, although we're only in Season 3 as we don't get Showtime and we're watching it on DVD.

Anyway, there was a squirrel in the most recent episode we watched!

This is on a dish of quail eggs that Queen Jane was enjoying at dinner with the king. I got excited and rewound the DVD just so we could see it again. And now I'm posting about it in my awesome squirrel blog, because that's how I roll.

Found Squirrels: E's Bouncy Chair

So a few posts ago I mentioned that we went to Minnesota for our new nephew E's baptism. While we were there visiting the kids, I noticed this excellent squirrel item that E is currently using.

Yes, E's bouncy chair has a squirrel on it! I was pretty sure that his parents were raising him right, but now I'm 100% positive that they are. I assume that this is some sort of themed line of baby paraphernalia which will be out of production by the time B and I reproduce. This disappoints me, but my sister-in-law has promised to save it for us for when B Junior shows up. Yay!

Found Squirrels: Nicaragua Edition

So my friend J was here a few weeks ago, visiting from Nicaragua where she is working as a Peace Corps volunteer. She mentioned that she had an awesome photo of a squirrel to send me, and of course I was pleased to hear this.

I have received many awesome squirrel things via the email. But this is probably the best the one yet, and certainly the most unusual.

Guys, the squirrel is ON A LEASH and SITTING ON HIS SHOULDER. It's his little friend! His little pet! It's every fantasy I've ever had about squirrel ownership all rolled up into a photo!

(I will note here that all the research I have done about keeping a squirrel as a pet has indicated that they do not make good pets unless you enjoy having the shit scratched out of your furniture and your self every day.)

Now to be fair, the squirrel looks a little freaked out. And a little skanky. Both of these characteristics are common for animals/pets in Nicaragua, as I recall. But wow, I am still jealous of this kid. And so thankful that J has opened up this new world of possibility to me.

Squirrel leash. Why didn't I think of it first?

Found Squirrels: The Last Unicorn

So while I'm busy being nostalgic for my childhood (see earlier post regarding Chip and Dale), I wanted to mention another place in my childhood entertainment where I've found a squirrel.

This screen shot is from the opening credits of what was probably my favorite childhood movie, The Last Unicorn.

Did anyone else watch this movie? My sister and I LOVED it and watched it whenever we could cajole our parents into renting it for us. A few years ago I rewatched the whole thing, and the movie itself was very familiar, yet very unfamiliar. I knew the cadence of the words spoken by the characters, but not the words themselves, and I always knew what sort of scene was coming up next (happy, sad, scary, etc.) but wasn't quite sure what would happen in that scene. Something in this movie deeply imprinted itself on my brain, and yet if you had asked me just five years ago, I could not really have explained the plot to you.

What one thing have I always remembered from the plot? The skeleton guy, who drinks a whole bottle of wine and the wine just runs through him. That dude used to show up in my scary dreams as a child a lot. In fact, he still does sometimes, although I am less terrified of him than I was previously.