Wednesday, January 21, 2015

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.

26 comments:

GLOGIRLY said...

Oh my COD! We had no idea it was National Squirrel Day! We have the premium Squirrel TV package outside our back deck. Still trying to figure out how to DVR it.

Those are some interesting squirrely facts!

Cats Herd You said...

How cool is that? We didn't know a lot of these facts, and the head peep actually bottle raised a squirrel, many years before any of us were around.

The Island Cats said...

It's National Squirrel Day?!? We'll have to watch them and celebrate!

Hannah and Lucy said...

We hadn't heard of National Squirrel Day before today - we have red squirrels (who are native in the UK) and also grey squirrels who aren't native here ( it's thought they came by ship many years ago and were stowaways!!).
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx

Elizabeth R Rose said...

That was very interesting although Cinnamon still hates squirrels!

Anonymous said...

I love squirrels, too, Melissa and Truffles. I raised orphaned, baby squirrels, in the past. Construction, in the spring, always destroys nests. They are just like human babies, need feeding around the clock.

Unknown said...

Baby squirrels are called kittens? Isn't that stealing a little bit from you cats? Hmmm, I am always wondering about those sneaky critters. Happy WW

Groovy Goldendoodles said...

You would never stop laughing if I dare shared some of my stories about me and my fear of squirrels. It's really sad. They terrify me....

Fur Everywhere said...

Those are really interesting facts about squirrels! I had no idea they sweat through their feet.

Cat and DOG Chat With Caren said...

Mom blogged about Squirrel Appreciation Day a few years ago (I think maybe on Dakota's blog, can't remember!) Mom has been a freak about squirrels since High School! She loves them! Love, Cody

pilch92 said...

I didn't know any of that stuff about squirrels- very interesting. Have you seen any black ones? Certain areas near us have them, but so far we don't. I think they are cute and the kitties do enjoy watching them.

Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty said...

Aww.... We don't have many here but there was one the other day racing along our back fence and up a tree. Athena was watching it through the window. I don't think any cat can catch a squirrel (not that I want her to catch it).

Purrs xx
Athena and Marie

Unknown said...

We aren't real fans of squirrels in our house, but they are good entertainment for cats in windows and on our walks. Love Dolly

ANGEL ABBYGRACE said...

We never knew this! Mom is not crazy about squirrels. We have literally a zillion of them living nearby.(we live in a very wooded area) Those critters can be bothersome to Mom, but we love watching em!

Golden Woofs! SUGAR said...

They can surely spot an acorn :-) Have not seen a squirrel here in SoCal ... Sugar is wondering where they are hanging out. Golden Woofs

Anonymous said...

Weez sure believ it 'bout them plantin' all those twees. Weez hav a ton of acorn purrducin' twees fanks to da squirrels. MOL

Luv ya'


Dezi and Lexi

Connie - Tails from the Foster Kittens said...

well that was interesting.. thanks for sharing

Talent Hounds said...

Kilo loves squirrels too.

The Swiss Cats said...

We learned new things about squirrels ! You can barely see them here, they are very shy and rather rare ! Purrs

Kitties Blue said...

We are super upset at our mom. This is the first time we have missed Squirrel Appreciation day. We have three squirrels that live in our yard, and we love watching them. They run up and down the screen on our catio, and we run up and down on our side. We feed them right along with the birdies. A pox on squirrel haters. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

Anonymous said...

You are so adorable Truffles! It sounds like you have been having a great week (birds and squirrels). Squirrels really are interesting animals. I'm glad that they spend so much planting trees. Us humans are not very good at putting trees back when we use them.

meowmeowmans said...

We love squirrels here, too! Thank you for sharing all these terrific facts, Truffles and Melissa. :)

Kitty Cat Chronicles said...

We love squirrels too. They are so cute and sweet. We enjoyed the fun facts you shared as well. Oh, and Mom says that one of her music students had a pet squirrel! Her family found it in their yard and a wee little kitten, all alone, so they took it in and raised it until it matured enough to go out on it's own. Mom got to hold it and pet it!!!

Cathy Keisha said...

Whoa! Gramps used to have a bag of peanuts and feed the squirrels every day. They even ate out of his hand. He used to throw the peanuts on the porch roof and they would climb on the window screen and scare Faith. The last straw was went Gramma opened the window to hang wash and a squirrel came into the house. No more feeding on the porch roof.

Christy Paws said...

Those were some interesting facts! We have squirrels around here but none have come to our yard so far -- at least none we have seen.

Unknown said...

Hey! That's the same squirrel that photobombed mes! It sure gets around!
Kisses
Nellie