Nuthin' Up My Sleeve!

I don't know about you, but having grown up in the good ol' USA, when I hear about "flying squirrels", I immediately think of Rocky, the Flying Squirrel and his best friend, Bullwinkle the Moose, those beloved creations of Jay Ward (and his partners Alex Anderson and Bill Scott) that graced the tiny TV screens of my youth.

I really loved Rocky and His Friends, including Dudley Dooright, Fractured Fairy Tales, Peabody's Improbable History, and all the rest.  My love for the show made meeting June Foray in the 1980s all the more fun for me. 

June Foray

June was the actress who voiced Rocky, and, basically all the women characters, in these delightful animated shows, including that femme fatale, appropriately named Natasha Fatale.  June is a woman of considerable talent, and, I might add, a real classy lady of wit and charm.  What's also great, though, was realizing upon meeting her that Rocky's animated self bears a distinct ressemblance to the diminutive June.  Those artists!  What funny guys.

Amazingly enough, June is still with us.  She's 94 now.  She'll be 95 years old this year in September.  Wow.  You go, girl.  I love you! 

Anyway, this is a long way around mentioning that my friend Donna, who lives in Connecticut, recently found flying squirrels in her neighborhood.  Honest to goodness Flying Squirrels!

Flying Squirrels peeking at the lady with the camera

Donna said it was so dark, that she had to point the camera and take pictures rather blindly and hope for the best.  I think she did fairly well, all things considered.

Look at this sweet little fellow:

I think he was posing for the camera!

You can barely see this next little one, but he, too, is posing for us.  Maybe you'd call this "natural camouflage"!

Donna calls this photo (below) the "Flying Squirrel Apartment".  I'm not sure what that is on the side of the tree (A burl? Fungi? A birdhouse?), but I'll take her word for it.

This photo came out rather well, I think:

What a cute little chubby guy!

Wonder if he knows a tall, gangly Moose?