Dutchboy - Squirrels- JournalHome.com

This is an entry inspired by something that happened last Friday: my cat, a tabby tomcat named Molly (don't look at me, the name wasn't my idea), caught himself a bat. That was pretty interesting. I knew there were bats in Enkhuizen, but actually seeing one? That was a first. It wasn't actually the first time I saw a bat. Back when I lived in Hoorn and played soccer every summer evening, I saw loads of them flying overhead, usually just after nightfall. Plus, I've been to Disney's Animal Kingdom over in Orlando, where they have a collection of bats a lot larger than the ones we have over here. Yet, too see one upclose like the one my cat caught, that was sort of special. Even though I knew they were there, bats were almost like a mythical species, because they are so rarely seen.

That brings me to squirrels. Throughout my early school years, until sixth grade or so, squirrels were a regular feature in schoolbooks and stories the teachers would tell. It was almost as if they were an everyday occurence in Dutch nature. And so, I've looked for them and looked for them, but I've never found one. Sure enough, when I was in America, I saw them just about everywhere, from the streets of Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans, San Francisco, etc., to the Grand Canyon and the Great Smoky Mountains, but until last April I had never seen proof that they even existed in Europe. Until... I saw a Champions League semifinals soccer game I normally wouldn't even have watched, because the teams didn't appeal to me. In the fifteenth minute, I believe, there was suddenly a squirrel on the field, in London, and it took the players several minutes to chase it away. The funniest moments I've ever seen in a CL game at that. I don't have great faith in European nature, but this brought hope to my heart.

In other animal news three foreign species have made it to the list of domestic species in the Netherlands this year: the rat snake, the black widow, and the redback spider. The proliferation of the non-venimous rat snake started ten years ago, when the owner of three rat snakes grew bored and released them in his backyard. Just south of Groningen they have become an everyday sight. The black widow and the redback spider have benefited from airline traffic and are thriving throughout Europe. Don't worry, there have been no fatalities yet. I do worry a little about the Australian redback spider, which is said to lurk in toilet bowls, but other than that, they bring a hazardous edge to the Dutch environment, and I find that exciting to say the least.