The question is, as always, are they horrible little rat bastard demons, or fuzzy, cute, silly little clowns?
For a long time I thought demons. Probably with fleas and bubonic plague.
Then I saw how cute and silly and funny they are, hopping and scurrying all over the yard.
Then, of course, I realized that they’re doing all of that hopping and scurrying so they can eat all of the bird seed that gets put out. So I’m back to little rat bastards…
There’s a story that a few years ago the Government hired a Marketing Consultancy to determine what message would get the public to change their minds about squirrels so they could be controlled better. The Consultancy firm eventually came back and said any attempt was doomed to failure because squirrels are simply too cute… they tick all the boxes for designing a cute character, from the spacing and attitude of their eyes to their cuddly fluffy tail…
I can’t remember when I first heard this, but I think I was in policy circles at the time. 🙂
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On the other hand, it has made me more tolerant of the rats that visit my feeder… just cute squirrels without the cuteness and tails…
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