Many, many Decembers ago, a few days before Christmas, an animal fell down the chimney at our house. Not knowing what to do or if the critter was hurt, or worse, rabid, my parents called animal control.
When the animal control officer arrived at the house she suggested we open the fireplace and direct whatever was in there out through the living room and to the side door. Well, as my dad and the officer opened the doors... a completely terrified squirrel leapt out of the fireplace, onto the couch then catapulted itself on to the fully decorated Christmas tree across the room!
It ran up and down the trunk for atleast an hour until it finally got tired and ran out the side door.
My dad (who we sometimes affectionately refer to as Clark Griswold for lots of reasons) wrote a hilarious poem inspired by "The Night Before Christmas" about our own little Christmas Squirrel and illustrated it using totally awesome early 90's Corel Clipart.
He sent a copy to the animal control officer which she later framed and hung at the Mecklenburg County Animal Control Office. For years, people who went to get dogs from the pound would ask us, "hey, did you have a squirrel on your Christmas Tree once?"
It's a great story and it probably one of my favorite childhood memories.
Since then, I have always loved a good piece of squirrel artwork. In fact, we all do. It has kind of become a running family joke. And for some reason, Etsy is full of great squirrel art today!
Here are some of my favorites:
Dionysus by Amber Alexander
1930's French Alphabet Print
Ragtime by Susie Ghahremani
Nuts by Fuzzywork
Detail from Yummy Acorn by Tracy Lizotte
Grey Squirrel at the Wine Bar
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