#gray squirrel

[bonefall]

Bit of a random one but rereading the parable of the squirrels got me curious: how would clan cats (or just thunderclan in particular) view black/melanistic squirrels? Have any of them ever seen one? Im not sure how common they are in the uk, but i know they can be relatively prevalent in areas that have them sometimes

Black squirrels are nothing more than a simple morph! They get common in areas that have melanistic genes present as a result of simple genetic drift, though I've seen it proposed that black fur is an advantage in cold areas.

The gene is rare in the populations the Warriors come across, so they almost never see it. In spite of ShadowClan's unwillingness to control the gray squirrel population, ThunderClan is so aggressive about it that the pool stays shallow. Red Squirrels (pishkaf) do not have this gene. Only Gray Squirrels (chakchak) do.

So every time a black squirrel manages to occur, it's treated like a dire omen. Even ShadowClan takes it seriously.

Black as a color is associated with day and night cycles, because of Moon Shadow, Sun Shadow, and Shadowstar. Gray Squirrels are associated with war and benefit at the suffering of others. These things together herald great upheaval-- so cataclysmic that it would likely not be an "honorable conflict."

If you came to your Cleric with this omen, they would be struck with a look of terrible alarm. They'd be interested in its context, what it was doing, if it was eating anything, what its surroundings looked like. Someone like BB!Runningnose, interested in supporting Brokenstar's ambitions, might spin it as a positive sign.

Most Clerics would announce that the squirrel needs to be killed IMMEDIATELY, and launch a massive hunt to destroy it. What would come next would likely depend on the culture of the time, but for the most part I can imagine some sort of mass "purification" ritual. The whole Clan trying to identify how they can avoid the cataclysm, one of the few times where they see a glorious war as a bad thing.

The cat who kills the squirrel would likely earn an Honor Title. It's also very likely that the body of the animal is treated as a very powerful material-- burned to ash to prevent its use in forbidden magic or carefully preserved and made into something special, no in-between.

(Thinking about it... thanks for the idea I'll totally do this for Brokenstar's Cataclysm lmao. The sinew of the black squirrel is probably used to re-string Runny's acorn necklace.)

[snototter]

A leucistic Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) in Illinois, USA

by Sean Crane

[todaysbird]

shout out to this bobtailed gray squirrel living his best life!

[alcnfr]

A couple of other Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) from this Morning...

[critter-catcher]

Some cute pictures of squirrels, part 2

Bonus:

This fella after running through the water dish and getting absolutely soaked

[counterintuitivecomics]

sleeping squirrel studies from my watercolor sketchbook 🤎🐿💤 I used terra cotta pencil, a dark brown water-soluble pencil, and a watercolor kit. Image in the link goes to a patreon post more info and more squirrels....click if u dare

[ancientfrozenglaciershark]

[danskjavlarna]

Source details and larger version.

I've squirreled away a modest collection of vintage squirrel imagery.

[unbridleddiscoveries]

Eastern gray squirrels on a small branch

[flannelfoxen]

Sciurus carolinensis / Gray Squirrel

11/1/23 Wildlife World Zoo

[smudgeandfrank]

Behold, my new hungry and gentle friend of the day, Squishy the gray squirrel 💖🐿💖

[rattkween86]

There's this gorgeous waiter at an olive garden my friends and I go to when we visit the city, and he's got beautifully styled gray hair, always smells really good, speaks like he's from a whimsical romance novel, probably in his late 40s.

Anyway, we were talking about visiting the restaurant and someone mentioned our favorite waiter, and I couldn't remember the term "silver fox," so I just blurted out "Oooooh yeah, gray squirrel!" And no one will let me fuckin forget it.

[serthra]

Squirrel in Black and White

No reason, just wanted to post this cute squirrel.

Decided to use black in white since he was a grey squirrel on a grey path, might as well make him more "dramatic". Not that he needs much, they're so cute all on their own, just look at those little paws and fluffy tail!

iPhone, Central Park, Burnaby, BC, October 2023

[geopsych]

Hello. I try to post beautiful things and this slightly chunky squirrel doesn’t look like much. But I have been keeping this squirrel and its (their?) story from Tumblr because I didn’t want anyone to get invested. I was certain it wouldn’t last beyond last summer and when it disappeared people might get sad.  My neighbor and I call this squirrel Shakey or just the shaky one because there’s something wrong with it. It can’t run right, is unstable when it walks, runs, or stands up. I think that’s why it’s chunkier than all of the other squirrels who generally are running around like maniacs at full speed, balancing on electric wires and other acrobatic things. This one can’t do all that. And I can only get its picture from the back because it is much more easily scared than other squirrels, who tend to be brazen. But Shakey knows they can’t outrun anyone so at the least sign of trouble they’re gone.  They used to have the biggest fluffiest, most magnificent tail of them all but in the last few months something happened. I don’t know how squirrel tails work but now it can’t fluff it out. The tail always looks skinny and drags behind it, never gets placed over its head like an umbrella or flipped around to show emotion. I don’t know what happened. I feel sorry for it but I admire how it keeps going. The others don’t pay it much attention.

I’m in awe that it made it through a winter and that it keeps coming back and doing what it has to do to live. Hurray for Shakey, the squirrel who is differently abled!  

[alcnfr]

An Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) has finished it's birdhouse remodel...

[patriciastrike]