Sunday, November 23, 2008

FrankenSquirrel(s), the Final Chapter

A while back I posted about the FrankenSquirrel.

Honestly, it was a horrible sight; the fur around the eyes, ears, and butt had disappeared and the skin (where the fur used to be) was a mottled red/white, and bulging--almost to the point where his eyes were 'hooded' by the skin.

An alert reader pinged his wife, who diagnosed the FrankenSquirrel as having the mange, a contagious and always-fatal disease.

What makes this a little interesting is that I have seen literally hundreds (maybe thousands) of squirrels, here in suburbia and in the city of Milwaukee, not to mention all the other places one normally travels. NONE of them had this condition.

At any rate, the backyard is filled with the damn bird-seed-pigs, all of whom were at risk of getting this disease and, for that matter, spreading it to the local red-fox population, the feral and domestic cats, and the local pooches.

Didn't take much to make the decision. Took him out.

Sure enough, he'd already infected another squirrel--who is also now enjoying 72 squirrel-virgins.

I hope that's the end. They are pests, but fun to watch, particularly as they fight over a stash of birdseed...

5 comments:

Display Name said...

What? You don't eat what you kill?

Prosqtor said...

Actually, unless the second squirrel blew himself up outside a coffee shop, or alongside a road with US or Israeli troops driving past, he's just another victim of US Imperialism. Not a martyr.

Foust, do you eat diseased meat?

Dad29 said...

Well, OK. Then I'm an imperialist.

Might as well add "hater" before Capper or Folkbum do.

As to Foust: wouldn't surprise me to learn that he does eat diseased meat. Would explain a lot!

Display Name said...

Mange is just a skin disease, right? Probably doesn't affect the fine taste of squirrel. If you browned it a bit before you baked it, it'll take that mange taste right out.

Dad29 said...

Tell you what, John.

I'll ship the corpses to you. Not to worry--they've been frozen since + or - 4 hours after expiring.

Try them out. Write back to me.