About a month ago I dropped my son off at daycare, and went back to my car where the city had dug up all the streets around the suburban neighborhood for, you guessed it...Road Construction.
So, as I put the car into drive, and turned around a corner, I saw a white squirrel chasing after a grey squirrel as they darted right out in front of my car. So, what does it mean to have a white squirrel cross your path? I wonder if it's like having a black cat cross your path. It could be as fun as a white rabbit..."I'm late, I'm late." Alice knows the truth in that. I've only noticed cute brown and grey bunnies and the occasional red fox in the suburbs.
Now grey squirrels are pretty common here in Minnesota, and fairly pesky. They confiscate the large seeds from my mom's buckeye tree and carefully nibble away at the outer shell. Then they tuck away the inner nut under the large maple tree and other inconspicuous spots in the front yard. When they don't capture them all during the winter months, we see buckeye sprouts in the springtime. But, how is it that I've lived 38 years of my life and I don't recall ever seeing a white squirrel before. Then, just about a week later, in a different neighborhood, I saw another one. It could be the same one...I mean how many can there be? So, I had to Google it. http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/squirrels.html...try it. There's actually five cities in North America that claim to be the white squirrel capital. So... I don't know. Do we watch for this budding population in the coming years here in the Minneapolis area? I'll be watching. If you think there's any other significance to this white squirrel sighting, let me know.
3 comments:
NO WAY!!! There's one that lives in the trees behind my mom's condo in Roseville. I used to love contemplating its uniqueness from her balcony. Guess it's not so unique, after all, but still beautiful -- and fun.
. . . interesting . . . there was a white squirrel that lived in my old neighborhood . . . I have noticed one in my new neighborhood (of four years) as well . . . seasons in light (smile) . . .
Truth is stranger than fiction. In our old neighborhood (Camden, NW Mpls) there was a population of albino squirrels. We often saw them on the parkway and further south by the hospital. In 12 years there I only remember seeing one in our yard once. However, we moved a mile and a half to Robbinsdale this past March and there is a white squirrel family that lived in a huge Elm tree our neighbor lost last year. When we first moved here we saw the white squirrel in our yard daily. Once I saw two at the same time. But, in the past month we haven't seen them and we have seen a rise in the population of grey squirrels who adore our birdfeed on the ground. I did see a grey chasing a white and I wonder if the "normal" ran the "abnormal" out of town. The thought makes me sad and I wonder what, if anything, can be done to bring the white squirrels back?
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