ROSE COTTAGE BLESSINGS
Spiritual Notes from the Lake
BY COLLEEN MARIE LASKY
FASCINATING FOX SQUIRRELS
Fascinating Fox Squirrels
By Colleen Lasky
Published in Creation Illustrated, Fall 2024, Vol 31, No. 3
Behind our home the rays of warm, autumn sunshine lighted up clusters of aging northern red oak trees with their leafy bouquets of yellow and orange. Darting about wildly among the branches of vibrant foliage, two juvenile eastern fox squirrels competed for my attention.
I began to meditate on God lovingly and lavishly providing for all living things. Zeroing in on the chase between these two gray-brown fox squirrels with orange rust bellies, I contemplated all the things God already had in place for these little creatures to flourish.
Even before they were born, their mother was hard at work preparing a safe haven for them to begin their lives. Although she could have chosen to weave together twigs and fresh foliage to form a leafy nest as sometimes done in the summer months, she seemed to know her offspring would have a much better chance for survival in a den. I gazed up high at an opening in one of our oaks – a very thin, oblong slit in the tree trunk may have been started by a woodpecker.
This inconspicuous opening was widened by the mother squirrel’s razor-sharp teeth gnawing away inside the tree until a type of nursery was formed. Then, after 45 days of gestation, she gave birth to two little offspring, which are called kits at birth.
These two newborn squirrels—helpless, blind, deaf, and without fur—remained completely dependent on their mother for three months. Four weeks would pass before they could hear anything. Their care would come from their mother alone—nursing them, grooming them, and ridding them of parasites. In addition to keeping them healthy, she would instinctively and aggressively protect them from avian predators such as hawks and owls.
As the kits strengthened and grew into juveniles, their mother’s role in their lives became less prominent. At this stage of their journey, the siblings assist each other with skills of playing, fighting, and grooming each other. Running up the tree and down again, they learn which trees hold the most food, how to crack a nut, and how to judge a flimsy branch.
One afternoon I watched and gasped as one of the squirrels misjudged the strength of one of the tree limbs. The creature fell to the ground and appeared to be temporarily or permanently paralyzed from the waist down. As I observed the healthy squirrel run to the side of its injured sibling, I thought about God’s promise to all of us to provide everything we need for our journey. “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope’” (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV).
Now the injured squirrel lay vulnerable to ground predators such as fox or coyote, but hope was not lost. The attentive sibling frantically chattered a warning to get to safety – persistently chit-chit-chitting commands encouraged the injured one to pull itself through the grass. Further amazed, I watched the healthy squirrel begin crawling up the tree backward, staying inches from its sibling’s face, and relentlessly encouraging the injured squirrel to continue up the tree, which it did!
The crippled creature hauled itself all the way to the top of the old trunk (a span of at least fifteen feet) with only the use of its front legs while following the voice it trusted the most. Finally slipping itself into the safety of the den, the exhausted critter could rest and hopefully recover. I began to ponder a poem written by Jan Richardson entitled “Beloved Is Where We
Begin” that states, “I cannot promise this blessing will free you from danger, from fear, from hunger or thirst…but I can tell you that on this path there will be help. I can tell you that on this way there will be rest.”
In the days that followed, I became even more intrigued by the life of the fox squirrels. I learned that these juvenile squirrels, so helpful to each other in their youth, would eventually lead completely solitary lives. Yet, God has prepared them for life on their own, too, by equipping them with astonishing instincts. Some research reveals that they will go to great lengths to outsmart other wildlife by deceiving them when first burying some acorns and then returning later to bury them somewhere else.
In addition, while their underbelly and under tails are bright orange, they seem to know the top side of their gray-brown fur blends in perfectly with tree trunks. The coy creatures often freeze in place to create a natural camouflage that fools perceived predators. If that doesn’t work, they begin to vigorously chit-chit-chit-chit, which sounds like a scolding or warning as they whip and swish their tails to show they mean business.
These bushy tails help the squirrels survive in other ways too. Pulling their tails over their back in the rain protects them like an umbrella. During winter months they curl their tails around their bodies to create a blanket. Their tails also act as stabilizers when they are airborne, morphing into a sort of parachute when they fall from a tree. And when squirrels swim, their tails become rudders. Plus, a few snappy tail flips back and forth can stave off predators that get too close. Their tails also help communicate fear, annoyance, aggression, and other emotions by various positions – straight up, straight back, twitching in all directions, or curled around their body. In fact, their common name is derived from the Greek word Skiouros, means “shade tail,” which describes one of the most conspicuous and recognizable features of these small mammals of which there are 280 different species in the squirrel family. They live throughout the world with 40 of them being American and Eurasian tree squirrels. Another subset of the family includes prairie dogs and chipmunks.
As if the many uses of their tails wasn’t enough, our most generous Creator has gifted squirrels with powerful senses to help them survive. Those bright orange ears, once completely deaf, grow to gain an astounding ability to hear and detect threats or to communicate with other squirrels. Razor-sharp eyesight, a well-developed sense of taste and touch, and a bewildering ability to smell acorns buried several feet beneath the snow all add to their amazing cadre of skills. Similarly the psalmist expresses the abundance of blessings God bestows to all His Creation in Psalm 23:5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” (NIV).
Now every autumn I engage in prayerful thought when I see the fox squirrels becoming active in my oak trees preparing for winter’s freeze. At times I, too, feel like a helpless kit - blind and deaf to any workable solution to my challenges. I sense a need for God’s comforting presence to support me and provide me refuge like the tall oaks do for His creatures.
I seek comfort in the gospel, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6:26, NIV). I put all faith in God’s promise, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10, ESV).
With these promises I become more willing to take chances – to navigate the sometimes risky branches of my own life with more courage. And if I should misjudge something and find myself injured and vulnerable, as I surely will, I believe with my whole heart that God will be right beside me, that He will send me an abundance of everything that I may need to forge onward, and the Lord will send me helpers to assist with my journey home. The eastern fox squirrel has testified so.