In all seriousness, has anyone on here EVER run into a squirrel, especially by simply maintaining your straight path as you see one running around. I would think squirrels are fast enough to get out of the way of a bicycle most of the time, and even if you did run over one, it should cause a crash anymore than some other small bump would. The picture above of the squirrel jumping through the spokes is surely such a rare occurrence as to not be a bother.

I often have a group of dogs come running out after me on my commute barking up a storm. On other (non-commute) rides, different dogs have done similar things. BUT...I've never had one of them actually touch me or the bike! Apparently they don't want a collision any more than I do.

I've learned to simply keep riding and ignore them, no matter how much their barking makes it seem like they are about to attack me.