Squirrel Stuff I Own: Squirrel Cards

Well, this New York City Squirrel is back from her Christmas trip to the Midwest, and has returned with even more squirrel stuff. And yet I'm still struggling to catch up this blog with squirrel stuff acquired in early December!

I received a few squirrel-themed greeting cards, recently, this one is from my friend M, who found it in Iceland.

Cute, right? Here it is from a different angle, so you can see how it's built. I like how this one is a red squirrel, since most of my squirrel stuff is based on the grey squirrel.

And then my friend E picked up this beautiful card for me in South Africa, I believe.

I love it. I feel like it's the type of piece you could put in a frame and then build a decorating scheme around, if one was inclined to decorate around a rodent. And hey, if anyone in the world were to be inclined to decorate like that, wouldn't it be me?

Squirrel Stuff I Bought For Other People: Pop-Up Squirrel Card

I found this ridiculous card at a store near my place of employment about a month ago. I immediately knew I needed to purchase this for my favorite squirrel, B.

Of course, this was in early November, so B's birthday had passed as had our anniversary. My birthday was coming up at that point, but you can't buy a card for yourself for your birthday (that's just ridiculous). So I got the card for B just because, even though clearly I was going to get more joy out of it.

Selfish? Maybe. But I like to think that he gets some joy out of the joy I feel from squirrel stuff.

Squirrel Stuff I Own: November 1995 National Geographic

So as I may have mentioned before, I got some good squirrel stuff for my birthday (most of it from my mother, it seems!). This one is particularly exciting.

What's that you say? "But Casey, what do fish have to do with squirrels?" Well, my little friends, behold the table of contents, what is that on page 98? An article titled "In Praise of Squirrels"?!?!

This is a great article. It was written by a woman who spends 78% of daylight hours observing her squirrel friends in her backyard. She has named them, and regularly feeds them and observes their interactions while eating. She feeds walnuts to her favorite one. She is living my dream.

Of course the article isn't just squirrel anecdotes; she beefs it up with lots of interesting facts about squirrels. And the pictures are wonderful!

Baby squirrels! Of course this magazine is from 1995, which is the most interesting part. There is an advertisement for Windows 95! And all the pictures of cars are clearly dated. It's fantastic on so many levels.

Squirrel Stuff I Own: Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

Well, I had a birthday the other day. I share my birthday month with lots of cool people, including Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. (I'm sure there are others, but those are the two coolest people I can think of so I think I've proven my point.) It's the best month for a birthday.

Okay, now that I've thought about it I have a lot of good friends who also have birthdays in December and they are awesome too, but there are too many to name and I don't want to start playing favorites here. But you know you who are.

My mother gave me this book for my birthday this year.

I am way excited about it. First, because it has both a tree squirrel and a ground squirrel on the cover. Two types of squirrels! On the cover! Also it is by Dave Sedaris who is always good for a laugh. It occurs to me that I probably should've read this book before posting about it, but I haven't because I'm saving it for my Christmas travel. I'm pretty sure it will be funny, though, so let's just go with that.

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!

Squirrel Stuff I Own: Squirrel Stamps

I went to the post office today to buy stamps for my Christmas cards, and recalled that I had completely forgotten to post about an excellent gift I received in the mail almost two months ago.

Squirrel stamps! (And a raccoon, a creature which seems cute in children's books but is actually completely terrifying in real life, or at least terrifying where I'm from because they're larger than most second graders, but we'll let that slide.)

You may be surprised to learn, despite my love of collecting (or squirreling, as I like to call it) that I do not collect stamps. This isn't to say that I don't appreciate stamps. I did just purchase beautiful angel stamps for my Christmas cards, and I'm a little giddy about them but my short attention span will ensure that I forget about them entirely in 48 hours. Stamps just don't have the consistent draw required for me to start a collection.

But squirrel stamps? Those are unforgettable. And so cute! Thanks very much to C and D who found these at a craft fair of some sort, thought to themselves, "Gee, don't I know somebody who loves squirrels?" and were thoughtful enough to send them to New York City to join my collection of squirrel items. You guys are awesome.

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!