Reported Sighting of the "Thought-to-be-Extinct" IPS

Many of my faithful readers know I have been working on a book for several years. The book will be photographs I’ve taken of squirrels over the years. The title of the book has already been decided, Squirrels: Adventures and Shenanigans of Wild Squirrels. I have already written and laid out over 18 pages of the book. I have an outline with the titles of each chapter and content. And, most importantly of all, the cover has been designed and put in place in the publishing software with the printers. But the most awesome thing of all about this book is that it is taking on a life of its own. What I mean is, as I have shared this project with others, they have shared their photographs of squirrels with me. As I have viewed another’s photos I’ve learned the character of that person. Anyone who watches squirrels going to and fro in their yard, picking up nuts, carrying them here and there and burying them not once or twice but as many as three times… IS AS NUTS AS I AM ABOUT SQUIRRELS!

“That is an amazing photo you attached. I need your help on a couple of things in your photo… The white squirrel is closest to the camera, is that correct? Is it a shadow or does it have a brown head?” That’s how the reply e-mail started with a friend who sent me an attached photo of a squirrel yesterday. She told me about the squirrel several weeks ago and invited me over to take a photograph of the white squirrel. Now if you know anything about squirrels, when you want them to do something, they won’t; and when you don’t want them to do something, they will. I could only imagine how it would appear to onlookers if they saw me trying to explain to the police that I was not a “Peeping Tom” but rather someone trying to take photos of a white squirrel at the request of a neighbor. And I would probably be caught crouched down on all fours under a bush of the “Neighborhood Watch” captain’s front yard…

The e-mail continued, “The second squirrel in the photo, does that also have some white on it, or does it appear white because the sun is shining through its tail? If you don’t mind, I would like to venture a guess of what you have in residence in your yard. It is quite rare and if the community or more specific, the National Wildlife Federation were aware of your squirrel in resident you would have news media all over the neighborhood. Sandy (name changed to protect the innocent), you have what is called the ‘Inverted Palomino Squirrel.’ Once thought to be extinct, you may have proof they are, in fact, still in existence! And the squirrel behind the IPS (Inverted Palomino Squirrel) would be the ‘Inverted Inverted Palomino Squirrel which has never been proven to be in existence. And I can assure you that if you call the National Wildlife Federation, local news media or any friends or neighbors and tell them about the IPS or IIPS you will be called “Nuts,” or known as the ‘squirrelly lady down the street’ for the rest of your life.”

Continuing to spread it on thick, “Sorry, Sandy, I just couldn’t resist this opportunity to give you a good laugh. And actually, this would make for a good story to put on my blog and squirrelly book, except the names would be changed. You are such a sweet person and I admire you (I just had to say that in hopes of salvaging our friendship). I hope you enjoyed this ‘funny’ e-mail… Now back to the serious part… “

‘Sandy’s’ photo is an amazing squirrel picture and you can see a snippet of it below. However, to see the fullsize photo you will just have to wait for the publishing of the book to see that. Another thing, Sandy will be given credit for photographing the IPS and IIPS if she is truly brave to do so… I have had other people send me amazing squirrel photos and have decided the focus of the book is not to display my photos but rather to reveal the amazing antics of squirrels; considering that as the focus of the book, if someone has an amazing picture of squirrels I should use their photo rather than try and duplicate it myself. Of course, if someone else’s photo is used, it would be with their permission and they would be given credit as the photographer.