Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Franken-Squirrel(s)

Strange stuff in the back yard.

In the last 2 weeks, we've had a squirrel out there who looks like a Frankenstein version of squirius.

The critter has raw and VERY red skin surrounding both his eyes and connecting over his forehead. He has several patches of raw/red skin (near his ears, and on his butt), and his fur is noticeably patchy, front-to-back.

If I had any technogeek skills and took a pic, posting it here, you'd probably jump a bit. It's truly awful.

I suppose that the best thing to do for this critter is to shoot it to put it out of its misery; at the same time, I'm hoping to get a thought from a serious critter-knowledgeable type who can indicate whether this disease(??) might spread among the rest of the squirrel population.

There's another one who has a joint problem (I think) in his right rear leg--that leg doesn't function very well. As a result, while he's munching birdseed, he will slowly, slowly, slowly lean towards the left, almost falling over; and when he runs, he runs 'on the bias,' with the left-rear leg pushing harder than the right-rear.

Maybe they're metaphors for the (R) party?

5 comments:

TerryN said...

From the heading I thought you were posting on the vote re-count changes in the Minnesota senate race.

Franken-Squirrel(s) (away votes)

From what I have read squirrels have a rather rough existence. If they're not fighting off predators they're fighting each other. These guys might be showing signs of past fights.

Headless Blogger said...

Mrs. HB says your squirrel has mange. Your instructions are to LIVE trap the critter and bring it to the Wildlife in Need Center. The disease is fatal if untreated and will spread to other squirrels.

Dad29 said...

Live-Trap?

The estimable Mrs. HB wants me to purchase, bait, and eventually unload a Live-Trap for this beastie?

Thanks for the diagnosis; I kinda thunk it was a disease, but hoped that it was merely battle-scars.

He'll not poison any of his pals...trust me.

(Exit left, mount scope, lock, load, wait.....)

Headless Blogger said...

I believe the plan was: 1) nurse him back to health; 2) release him in the Dad29 backyard; 3) continue with your normal process; 4)cook the varmint in your popcorn popper.

Dad29 said...

Oh.

OK. I've considered both plans and have assembled a committee of GM Executives to consider it.

After they hire 46 people to examine the alternatives, and another 132 people to transcribe their thoughts, and another 35 to reduce the transcriptions to PowerPoint--and one poor schlub to actually EXECUTE the approved, finalized, plan....

The FrankenSquirrel will have had grandchildren; I will have had great-great-great-grandchildren, AND the GM stooges will be the recipients of a $100 MM bailout.

Meantime, I'll go with my plan, sans the popcorn popper...