Squirrels and Squirrly People

Everything I have read and heard about the subject over the years recommends against keeping wild animals as pets.  They're cute when they're little, but they do grow up and can get quite cranky during breeding season.  In Michigan it's actually illegal to take animals alive from the wild without a special permit.  There are some licensed wildlife rehabilitators who are allowed to keep injured or abandoned critters, nurse them back to health, and release them back into the wild.  If the nature of the injury is such that the critter will never be able to make it on its own, it might end up in a zoo, or be put down.   

I didn't know there were black squirrels in Chicago.  I don't think the grays phase black like that, so they must be fox squirrels.  Some people do not distinguish grays from fox squirrels but, like I said, you can tell by the color of their underparts.  Don't try this with a live one, but if you ever come across a dead black squirrel, pet the fur the wrong way and you can often see traces of the gray back and red belly underneath the outer black coat.  It's a random genetic thing, so it might skip a generation or two, which would explain why you don't see them some years.  

I have heard about and seen pictures of those red squirrels in the UK.  They have tufted ears, and  North American reds don't, but they otherwise seem to resemble our red squirrels.  Our reds certainly don't get along with our other squirrel species.  They are smaller but quicker, and legend has it that they bite the nuts off of a larger squirrel during a fight.  When I first moved to Michigan back in 1967 there was some talk about reintroducing pine martens because they are an effective predator of red squirrels and porcupines, which are not protected in our state because we have way too many of them.  Pine martens are weasel like critters that can climb trees like squirrels.  I don't know if the marten project ever got off the ground, I have never seen one in the woods, but I have seen some tracks in the snow that might have been made by them.  I doubt that the red foxes they have in the UK could make much of a dent in any squirrel population because they don't climb trees.  Gray foxes do climb trees, but I don't think they have them in the UK.  

It boggles my mind that people would vote for Obama or Sanders and then turn around and vote for Trump.  I'm not doubting Uncle Ken's word, I just don't understand what those people were thinking.  Sure all three candidates promised to change things, but not in the same direction.  It's like those cheerleaders used to say back in our high school days,  "Swing to the left. Swing to the right. Stand up. Sit down. Fight! Fight! Fight!"