Thank you to blog reader, Cindy, I now know that these little critters who have been providing endless entertainment for John and me, are called ground squirrels. Not only do they have a home in our yard, but their “second” home is under my Joyful Pause Cottage.
How do I know this? Well, I often see them scamper under there when I go outside. It’s also evident because of the mulch that is dug away from the edge of the foundation. Here is one such little fella outside one of those dug-out areas eyeing me up as I took his picture early evening last night.
At first, I wasn’t sure they were ground squirrels because Cindy had sent me a photo of the ground squirrels they had at their home in Tuscon, Arizona when they lived there. Those didn’t have stripes or white dots on them. But in doing a search on Google, it appears there are different colorings and markings. I guess you could say this is the Wisconsin variety of ground squirrels!
They also really remind me of prairie dogs in many ways. Especially when they sit up on their back haunches and their tiny legs dangle in front of them. They continue to provide endless smiles and captions we make up as they move about each night.
XO
Barb
