Here we have the touching tale of the woman who took in a concussed squirrel and has nursed it back to health:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-somerset-46404867/woman-takes-in-grey-squirrel-found-injured-in-somerset
I was amused by the description of the woman as a “squirrel carer”: shades of Philomena Cunk there, and I’m wondering if it was intentional.
I like squirrels. They’re lovely to watch in the garden, despite the fact that they strip our hazel tree as soon as the nuts are ripe enough to eat, which is a long while before they are ripe enough for us to eat. Indeed, they planted the hazel tree in the first place, so I supposed they are only harvesting their own crop. We currently have a sunflower that has sprung up in one of the beds and that was their doing too.
Furthermore, I am not put off by the jibe that “they’re only rats”. I like rats too, delightfully intelligent creatures that make excellent pets. Perhaps squirrels do as well, although you need a licence and would have to watch out for them chewing their way into food cupboards and, for that matter, through electrical cabling. Although, come to think of it, that might be a good thing and perhaps it’s the only way of preventing humanity evolving into drooling Kardashian and I’m a Celebrity addicted vegetables.
And please don’t give me any nonsense about invasive species endangering our native red squirrels. Apart from this sounding altogether too UKIP, anyone who says this about squirrels but doesn’t advocate the extermination of domestic cats, another invasive species that kills off wildlife, is a grade A hypocrite.