Broken-Tail-Squirrel

There is a philosophy paper I should be writing write now, or even a japanese paper that needs to get done by Friday, but I've already written a third of the philosophy paper tonight and don't have mind enough to continue.

Instead, I want to write about my favorite squirrel. Simply because.

My favorite squirrel on all of campus is Broken-tail-squirrel. I met him last year, or rather I cam across him repeatedly as he schizophrenically did whatever it is squirrels do with their time midwinter with two feet of snow on the ground. He was scrawny, very thin. Thin enough that I wondered if he had enough fat to survive the rest of winter, and February here is no were close to the end of winter. We had flurries in April last year, and it took well over a month for the two feet of snow that fell on Valetine's day to dissipate. I saw Broken-tail-squirrel shortly after this large snow, he was digging about in the snow, and like his name implies, his tail was broken in two. That latter half swung back and forth as he hopped around. It seems to have snapped clearly, but remained attached so that the tail arched as usual up to the break, then the rest of it hung vertically and dragged on the ground.

I'd never seen such an injury in an animal before. I wondered if there was an open wound that might get infected, or if the bit of tail dragging behind him might impede his survival. He was so tiny, I was sure I would never see him again.

Yet the next day I saw him, as active as any of the other squirrels, his tail dragging behind him. When I saw him, which was at least three or four times a week, I would comment to whoever was with me at the time, "Oh look, its Broken-tail-squirrel." Around mid-March I stopped seeing him. Slightly disheartened I figured he had finally fallen ill, or starved or been killed.

It wasn't until after all the snow had melted in late April and the temperatures had finally begun to rise that I saw him again.

On South Campus, in the same general area where I used to come across Broken-tail-squirrel, a squirrel darted in front of me on the side walk and up a nearby tree. He stopped around my head's height on the trunk and observed the surroundings. I glanced at him, as is my habit of following the activities of the squirrels around me and giggling at their antics, and found that he had an abnormally short tail. It was only about half the length of the tails of its peers. I had noted that some squirrels did have very short tails, but there was something odd about this one. The tip didn't taper off as most squirrel tails do. It just stopped.

Not thinking any more of it, I continued about my day. I don't recall if it was before seeing this particular squirrel or shortly after, but my room mate and I came across a soggy piece of fur on the sidewalk on the way to lunch on day. Looking at it I commented that it looked like a squirrel tail. It was the same grey fur with white over fur that most squirrels of this area have, the exception being the large and somewhat creepy brown squirrels. The bit of flesh was stuck to the sidewalk and the ragged fur blew in the wind. My room mate said it was disgusting. It didnt particularly bother me.

That is until I thought of Broken-tail-squirrel! I thought, what if the broken half had fallen off? How many squirrels are missing large portions of their tails on this small campus? Not many! Broken-tail-squirrel must have still been around, and here was his broken tail!

When I next saw the peculiar squirrel with the abnormally short tail I observed the tail. It cut off abruptly with the long fur from earlier on in the tail hanging loose where there was nothing underneathe it. This was Broken-tail-squirrel! He had survived the winter, and though he still looked very small, he was healthy and vibrant.

When I returned to school in the fall I found him again, he is still around, though now his tail seems to have round out where fur has grown over what was likely bare skin before. I look out for him when I am outside, just to make sure my favorite hardy little squirrel is still around.