My first love is wildlife and I thoroughly enjoy illustrating animals that fascinate me. If I illustrate an animal unknown to me, through the research involved in illustration, I quickly fall in love with that animal, and it might become to me, my new favorite animal. Like the northern flying squirrel.
I've yet to see one, but they're AMAZING!
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I had the pleasure, just once, of seeing one up close. My cat brought it in the house with plans to terrify it before dinner. With the porch light out, I didn't see she had anything in her mouth until it was too late and her furry 'friend' had zipped across the living room and was trembling in a small ball under the TV stand.
My father wanted to swat it to death with a broom. He's not actually a beast, but in rural Ontario chipmunks are a dime a dozen and that's what we assumed it was.
Luckily, I convinced him it would be easy to trap the animal and return it outdoors. We surrounded the TV with plywood, readied a large tupperware tub, and moved the TV stand.
Catching the little guy was a blur, cause he moved faster than we expected, nearly running up and over the plywood before we caught him.
When we released him later, the little creature scurried up a tree and stared down at us with his wide forward eyes, his skin-flap wings curving gently in folds along his side. My father thanked me, cause he, too, had never seen a flying squirrel.
Wow thanks for the story, FishGirl! What a treat it is to see one live and thank goodness you stepped in and saved him from utter demise in the human home! In checking out google images for pictures of flying squirrels, there's surprisingly a lot of photos of flying squirrels in the home, scampering about curtain rods and leaping across the living room.
Nice that your dad thanked you in appreciation. I'm sure the squirrel was grateful too!
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