We Purr for Squirrels!

Hey everybody, Truffles at the keyboard! Just a couple weeks ago we were celebrating National Bird Day, and now it's already Squirrel Appreciation Day! Mommy and I love watching squirrels even more than birds and it really upsets us when we hear about people who don't want squirrels eating from their bird feeders. They need to eat too! Whenever she sees one out the window she calls out "chirp chirp" to get my attention. We have several maple trees in our back yard that the neighborhood squirrels just love to run around and play in. (I'm not sure I care for them invading my bed though!)

Did you know that when frightened, squirrels dart back and forth to confuse predators? Sadly, this doesn't work with cars, so most city squirrels don't live longer than a year. Mommy has been known to nearly put passengers through her windshield when braking for squirrels. (I hope that never happens during a trip to the V-E-T.)

Here are a handful of other cool facts that we "dug up" about our backyard friends:

1. Squirrels can eat their own body weight (approximately 1.5 pounds) every week.

2. They are found on every continent except Antarctica and Australia.

3. Their sweat glands are on their feet.

4. They clean and sharpen their incisors every day with a twig, although they sometimes use power lines causing power outages. Their teeth never stop growing, either, so gnawing keeps squirrels' teeth from growing into their necks.

5. Squirrels can detect their scent left on acorns through a foot of snow. They aren't perfect at retrieval, though...squirrels are responsible for planting more trees than all mankind. Forgotten acorns become trees.

6. Baby squirrels are called kittens and kittens are born only twice a year, once in the spring and once at the end of the summer.