The Squirrel was found on a street in Malvern in Worcestershire by the De Burgh sisters. They said it looked like it was sleeping, perfect and beautiful, just a smudge of blood on it’s nose to give it’s injury away.
On inspection the entire skull was smashed to pieces, only the bottom jaw in more substantially sized pieces. I set about reconstructing the skull with ‘Milliput’ to enable me to complete the piece.
To do this I skinned another squirrel to use for reference. The book is from a charity shop, Dickens ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. The title made me think of the tale of two squirrels, the maligned grey who is a rat with a fluffy tale in the eyes of many, demonized because of its battle for territory with the native red, which I’m sure would never be called a rat with a fluffy tale as obviously it is a far more superior specimen.
Perhaps we need to think about that for a while and reflect on what the real differences are, and why we are so keen to demonise one species over another. All either want is the space to survive.
So the maligned grey squirrel, a female who was in good health until she presumably met a passing car is now peacefully sleeping on a book, oblivious to the complexities of the society that condemns her and not the car without a thought.
Her head rests on a small posy of flowers, she may not be native but to me she is still very beautiful and her life was as precious as any other.
Her eye’s are slightly open as she glimpses the world from her sleepy state. The book is from the 1920’s and had a blue ink inscription inside the cover from it’s owner. I took a photograph but lost the image so now the providence is sealed inside and lost forever.
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