The Legendary Great White Squirrel
On Saturday, January 7th, 2012, I had another sighting. The squirrel ran across the road in front of my car on Long Avenue in Midlothian, IL. My son, Cody, and two of his friends also sighted the elusive creature. I immediately stopped my car and got out to take a photo on my cell phone. The squirrel headed up a nearby tree and I got this photo of the squirrel before he got away…the legend lives on….
The Legendary White Squirrel Spotted January 7, 2012
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Call me Ishmael.
I first encountered the white squirrel about 5 years ago when we first moved into our house.
We were keeping our plastic garbage can outside our garage. I had noticed that the lid to the garbage can had holes eaten through it. I thought it was a raccoon that had eaten through the lid.
Then, one day, I was going to put a bag of garbage in the can and, as I got to the garbage can and went to remove the lid, a creature emerged from the hole in the lid of the can. I thought it was a rat and jumped back, but quickly realized it was a white squirrel that was scampering away. I had never seen a white squirrel and called to my wife to see it too. We saw it on and off in the days to come. But we haven’t seen it around lately. I wondered whether the winter had claimed its life.
Yesterday, I found the white squirrel back in our yard again. This time I got some photographic evidence of it, even though the quality of the photo isn’t much in the line of proof…the quality of the image is poor because I took it on my cell phone camera. I blew up the image and put a red circle around the squirrel in the image below.
- The Legendary White Squirrel
I looked up on the internet that squirrels can live up to 20 years in captivity, but usually only 7 to 10 years in the wild. White squirrels are rare, except in a few localities including Olney, IL http://www.ci.olney.il.us/Visitors/WhiteSquirrel.htm , so I think this is the same squirrel.
Shall I name him Moby? Herman? Melville? Ahab? Olney? Whitey? Jaws?
Should I hunt him obsessively to the point of insanity and at the risk of my life?
Should I get a real job?…a life?
