Orange And the New Black

Last week the beautiful Orange Queen returned.

This week I'm overjoyed to have Black back!

That is, a somewhat modified Black -- a new Black if you will.  That characteristic "V" on her back, by which I knew her, has disappeared.  But just as squirrel tails are always changing colors, their fur can change too. Squirrel "looks" go in and out of fashion, being as changeable as the weather and the seasons.

But there's so much that's the same -- her familiarity with me for one thing, and the way she races over when I enter the park, and then follows me around until I leave, and the way she gets so excited that she practically dances around me. That's how I know her.

Do you really have to go now?

Her boundless energy, her intense personality, her antics -- all these characteristics are still there in the new Black.


Black Being Black


I smell peanuts.

Casing the joint.

In goes the squirrel...

Out come the goods...



All that hard work... for peanuts!

So they've come back, but where have they been? Squirrels don't hibernate in winter, but I'm wondering if they've been going into some sort of semi-hibernation state during the hot days of summer? Maybe those "summer vacations" will become one of the ways that squirrels adapt to climate change. I actually think they deal with the cold better than with the hot weather. They put on those heavy winter coats and the little ear muffs and mittens when the cold arrives, but they have no similar defenses against the heat, and are stuck in their fur coats, which, while not as heavy as their winter coats, still have to feel pretty hot.