I wish I were capable of being responsible for those tailless squirrels but my fitness surely wouldn't allow me to travel more than about 20 miles (on a REALLY good day) from home--need more miles.

This little dude still has his fluffy side attached as there were no remnants in the street or elsewhere when I came back through. He wasn't sitting on the curb shaking his little fist at me either.

I'm afraid you squirrel lovers might not want to hear this but the next one to cut in front of me is TOAST. I won't be aiming for him but I'm not prepared to do a Roberto Laiseka faceplant to avoid smashing the little acorn-snatchers.

Oh, gee, by all means then let's kill the little (*&^%^!

They aren't vicious, they're wild animals. What are they supposed to eat- squirrel chow? Order pizza?

You know, birds can eat other birds too- gulls swoop down and eat baby ducks! And what about owls?Owls eat mice! I guess they're vicious creatures too. It's the nature of the wild- animals eat other animals. Squirrels are no worse than any other animal and it certainly doesn't mean they deserve the fate of being squished by a volvo.

Not to mention that we humans eat birds! (I'm guilty of that, so there you are.)

You say that like it's a BAD thing.

I've had pet rats, and they can be intelligent, inquisitive, and very sweet.

Today on the bike trail, a little red squirrel bounced across the path in a series of jumps so high it looked like he was flying.

Baaaarely. One point was that they are destroying native birds. That was probably lost in my attempt at humor. People are drawn to them because they are "cute". My second point is the same as yours, they are carnivorous rats. They are killed by the score here every year - no exaggeration. I wouldn't hesitate to crunch one if it ran in front of me, I will also go back to make sure it isn't suffering. A little aside ... I also had a girlfriend in college with a pet squirrel. Interesting little creature, till the bastard runs up your naked body after a shower. Our relationship was never the same (the squirrel and I).

No experience with squirrels, but lots with groundhogs. The worst was as a kid on BMX bikes. My buddy was up ahead and decided to use a dead bloated G-hog as a jumping ramp. Yes, you can "get guts on your face". He starts puking cause of the messy stuff covering him and the bike. I puke due to the pure stench.

I had a hog jump in front of my car while going down the highway @ 60mph. He dodged back and forth and my last ditch effort was to straddle the poor guy and hope he ducked. Well, he didn't. A quick look in the rearview showed a hog standing on his head spinning like a top. I didn't know hogs could breakdance!!

Aside from that, its just been a couple of snakes out here in the phoenix dessert. That scares the heck out of me as they usually strike at the bike with their dying effort.

I am going to buy that Squirrel Lover Figurine. I know, I know, I am completely out of my mind....

I clicked the link in the post above, not knowing what to expect.... I nearly fell out of my chair and had an asthma attack laughing at the squirrel lovers. I can't stand the little ba$tard$ but that is FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!.

I feed birds, in fact I was just outside and I had about 10 different hummingbirds around my head. I love the birds, hate the squirrels. I put 2, 5 gallon buckets of seed outside for easy storage only to replace the lids 3 different times because the squirrels chewed the lids off. I have replaced feeders, I have now purchased a metal container with a locking lid for the birdseed.

However, my beagle and my other pup love chasing them. My little beagle collided with one the other night while chasing three of them. One got confused and ran right into her. She was already at full run and wasn't expecting it, so they collided and then she came to a skidding stop to have the squirrel shag a$$ the other direction. She was so disappointed!!!!!! I was too! I was curious to see who would win the battle, but I have heard that the squirrel can put up a hell of a fight even with a dog.

I've heard that rats are actually great pets. I've thought of getting one. I like the rats with the black heads and white bodies- hooded rats. The bad thing is they don't live very long- about 2 years.

Anyways, I like squirrels, I don't care what anyone says. Thbbt! I feed them and actually get a kick out of them. However, I don't like that they get into the garbage and make a mess of it. And last year we found a dead squirrel in the driveway as we were about to go out for a ride. IT wasn't squished, it was just dead, we have no idea how or what happened. I guess it just died.

I was "MAD,MAD,MAD,......."yesterday .

A few miles from home, I passed a RED Squirrel road kill.

As Red Sqirrels are now an endangered species in the U.K.
Here in the N.E. of England is the last bastion of them, they have been taken over by the less endeering Grey Sqirrel in other parts of the country.

So to see a dead one on the road made me really upset, I spent the rest of the ride feeling at war with all of the motorized vehicle on the road, the perpitrates of this vile deed .

Willic,

Let me know if you want some red squirrels imported. I'll box up a few dozen from my yard and send 'em your way.

Nice...

On my ride today I saw two pancaked squirrels within 1.5 feet of each other. Must have been lovers.

Do squirrels mate for life?

Waaaa! That's so sad!

What's kind of funny is when the squirrels start porking up at this time of year as they store up for winter. They get huge! Sometimes they're about the size of woodchucks. It's hilarious to see them laboriously struggling up the telephone pole.

Were they holding paws?






Sorry Wabbit! I couldn't resist.

I don't know if I'd call it holding paws or ...
paws smushed together

That's exactly how I saw it! I'd swerve and sacrifice the body for them. I'm like velocipedio, they're the closest thing I have to a pet, so I couldn't imagine hurting one of the little buggers.

All of the British bikers owe gramps a thank you. The little bastard. See what happens when they go bad? I say launch a preemptive strike, take 'em out before it's to late.

Maybe it was a suicide pact...

It was a Grey Squirrel NOT a Red as depicted in your picture!

"Red Squirrels" are now extinct anywhere South of Durham.

That is why we have a "Red Squirrel" watch here in Northumberland, the last bastion of numerious Reds left in England.

Well squirrrel dodging behavior makes a lot of sense. To a squirrel, anything large and fast bearing down on them WANTS TO EAT THEM. That is a reasonable assumption. So they run one way and then swap ends and take off in the opposite direction. It works great if something is TRYING to catch you.

As we all know, that dodging behavior makes avoiding squirrels with our bikes .... challenging.

I was in a paceline a while back. One of our riders, dodged a squirrel. Edwina (an extremely proficient rider) chided him for doing so. She said that you should just run down the squirrel rather than dodging and putting another cyclist at risk. Besides, Edwina claimed that you could run over squirrels with impunity. Although, it must be hard on the squirrels.

I was out riding side by side with a friend of mine. A squirrel dodged her and went right under my front wheel. It got sucked up by the wheel and literally chopped in half by the spokes and fork. Gosh it was nasty and gross. I stopped and sprayed off the resulting squirrel debris from my tubes, legs, feet, and wheel with my water bottle. Edwina was right, you can run them over. But I would prefer not to.

By the way, I think that squirrels are cute. However, they are rodents with a high reproductive rate.

The only time I hate squirrels is when I'm on the bike. They are very entertaining in the back yard. A few years ago when I lived along the Mount Vernon Bike Path in VA I had one ride where I hit three of the little suckers. One of them almost sent the bike (and me) into the trees. After that I tried to scare them away as best I could. I found that hissing at them sent them up the trees. I've never experienced the squirrel gut issues mentioned above they usually just sort of crunched or limped off.

Has anyone posted this yet?

https://www.fun.from.hell.pl/2003-05-23/supercureuil.jpg

Tremble, cyclists!

Shoot, I like squirrels, too. Particularly in a gumbo.....

The only good squirrel is an absent one.

I don't make any effort to avoid the squirrels that happen before my bike. I've learned too many times that that it doesn't matter what direction you happen to swerve to avoid them because they are unpredictable. Sometimes they dart back from where they came from, sometimes they continue on their way, sometimes they run will you and then dart, and sometimes they just sit.

I just keep on my line and if I hit another one, oh well. Too bad. More grub for the marsh hawks.

The squirrels around here are too brave. I used to drive to the park in the morning to eat breakfast and they would jump on my hood and just look in at me like they were waiting for a handout. This morning, I had my first squirrel experience on a bike. I was on a bit of a downhill and a squirrel running across the road slammed on the brakes when he saw me. I don't know if I'm imagining things or not, but I think I heard little claws scraping the pavement, and he skidded into a little ball and ran the other way. Then I passed a flattened squirrel on the way home. Not in the same area, though.

If a squirrel runs out in front of me I am defintiely not going to swerve to avoid it. That Squirrel is toast ,I am not going to risk a crash that may injure me or damage my bike. Sorry to all of you squirel lovers.