Keeping Squirrels
Jan. 6th, 2013 10:29 pmTHE SQUIRREL.
LIKE the white mouse, the squirrel can hardly be recommended on the score of usefulness. You could, for instance, scarcely expect it to guard the house as a dog would, or to catch beetles; and I don't think many people would be tempted to try squirrel pie. Putting utility on one side, however, it is impossible to have a more interesting, amusing, and handsome pet than Mr. Squirrel.
It would be sending coals to Newcastle to tell a country reader anything of the habits of the squirrel, much less how to catch him. Many a tall fir have I swarmed up to dislodge a little ball of red fur clinging to a slender, swaying branch, and then, when the branch has been reached and vigorously shaken, and Mr. Squirrel drops to the ground as light as a feather-- oh, the grief to see it slip through the too eager hands of my schoolfellows, and go scampering up another tree, taller and more inaccessible than the last!
Sometimes we were successful, however, and there was a triumphant march home, with the terrified animal struggling in a handkerchief. Our pets soon pined away and died. I suppose they found it impossible to delude themselves into believing that their new domicile--a soap-box--was as good as the boundless freedom of the forest.
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LIKE the white mouse, the squirrel can hardly be recommended on the score of usefulness. You could, for instance, scarcely expect it to guard the house as a dog would, or to catch beetles; and I don't think many people would be tempted to try squirrel pie. Putting utility on one side, however, it is impossible to have a more interesting, amusing, and handsome pet than Mr. Squirrel.
It would be sending coals to Newcastle to tell a country reader anything of the habits of the squirrel, much less how to catch him. Many a tall fir have I swarmed up to dislodge a little ball of red fur clinging to a slender, swaying branch, and then, when the branch has been reached and vigorously shaken, and Mr. Squirrel drops to the ground as light as a feather-- oh, the grief to see it slip through the too eager hands of my schoolfellows, and go scampering up another tree, taller and more inaccessible than the last!
Sometimes we were successful, however, and there was a triumphant march home, with the terrified animal struggling in a handkerchief. Our pets soon pined away and died. I suppose they found it impossible to delude themselves into believing that their new domicile--a soap-box--was as good as the boundless freedom of the forest.
( Read more... )
