The gray squirrel of Canada and the United States (named because the entire top of its body, its face and its legs are gray) is definitely a favorite with many people. No doubt this is because of its cute little barks and chattering, as well as its fondness for playing “hide and seek” by scampering up, down and around tree trunks when people try to take its picture.
The gray top fur is complemented with white below, separated by a rust stripe; its bushy tail, as long as its body, is a pretty rust, black and white. Fur on its tail grows extra long as cold weather approaches, making a warm blanket to pull over its back and head or to curl up with in its nest. Its tail also acts as a rudder which, together with its strong hind legs, enables it to jump from tree to tree. If the squirrel accidentally falls, its tail immediately spreads out like a parachute. On rainy days it is also used over its head as an umbrella. No wonder a squirrel seems proud of it and spends so much time grooming it!
These small but tough creatures often show up in parks, making friends with those who feed them, but they can also be annoying at times. For instance, they will climb into a birdfeeder and eat only the sunflower seeds, spilling the rest on the ground, or get into flowerbeds and eat buds and seeds. In a field of corn or wheat they can be a real problem, digging up seed. But aside from these things many consider them the most intelligent of all animals and are willing to put up with the problems.
They are well equipped to shell nuts of any kind or to get inside pine cones with their long, sharp claws and curved teeth. (Their claws and teeth are always growing to keep up with wear and tear — a kind provision of the Creator.) Through summer and fall they bury nuts for winter food, as well as tuck dried mushrooms in branches of trees. They sometimes forget where the nuts are buried, but with their keen sense of smell, even through a foot of snow, they usually find them or those of another squirrel. The ones they don’t find often take root, and a new little tree shows up the next spring.
The nests of these squirrels are made of twigs and leaves, complete with a rainproof roof, and are usually high in trees or may be in a convenient hole in the side of a dead tree. As many as six little ones are born in the springtime and for several weeks rely on their mother’s milk for growth. But before long they are well covered with fur, have been taught the important things of a squirrel’s life, and are on their own.
All in all, these active little animals seem to fit in extremely well with the pleasure the Lord knew in creating them (as mentioned in our opening Bible verse), and He now looks on them with tender care.
ML-11/05/1989