Sally Squirrel of Beepea Gardens

Sally eating a piece of bread

Sally Squirrel of Beepea Gardens

The numerous native trees make an inviting home for Sally, who follows us along pathways like a puppy until she gets food. We go to the door of the Garden Room and call "Sally", "Sally" and she comes running. She eats saltine crackers, corn, apples, dry breakfast toast, Snicker bars, chips and her favorite, pecans and nuts.

I did not know squirrels like to play but I once saw her playing with an old piece of carpet. She would put her head under it, come out, and do a quick flip and do it again and continued this for quite some time.

She had a friend, Sam, and of course they became a couple and she began building a nest about 50 foot up a tree. We handed her a large piece of soft white garden fabric. She took it and then formed it into a ball and balanced it on her nose. She looked so strange with that large white ball balanced on top of her head going up the tree. Later, we tore an old garden shirt into strips and handed each one to her. She would roll it into a ball, balance it on her nose and up the tree she hurriedly went and then was back for another one.  She made about a dozen trips taking each one to the nest.

We knew the babies had arrived but never saw them. Finally, Sally came running down the tree to the deck with three, almost grown squirrels following her. It was as if she was saying "I brought them to see you". Of course, the three babies were wild and it took some time for them to come near us. When they became tame, Sally, Sam and the three babies would climb on the deck rails, spread themselves out flat, their paws hanging off the edges, their head at an angle where they could see us in the Garden Room and wait patiently for us to give them food.

Over time, Sam and the other three disappeared. Perhaps they were killed, or hopefully, they are getting food at other houses or in the wild, but Sally remains with us. Come back later and we will keep you updated on her.

UPDATE:  In November, 1999, Sally brought three new babies up to the deck. They were much smaller than the first ones and were tamer and more playful. Much to our surprise, one of them was a white squirrel. We named him Alby because white flowers in the garden are sometime referred to as Alba.