Graceful Parenting in Austin

This post is co-authored by my 10-year-old, Noel. If I haven’t mentioned this yet, she is very smart, funny and creative. Since I’m on leave from work now, we get to hang out together after school and I love our time together.

So, one morning a few days ago, I’m loading the dishwasher or washing bottles or something like that and I look out the kitchen window into the back yard and I see a fat rat in my tree.

It is HUGE. And WHITE. And clinging to the trunk of the tree, facing downward, in the middle of the day, which seems an odd place for a rat to be. So I look closer.

Then its tail moves into view and it is a squirrel’s tail. Hmmm, a rat with a squirrel’s tail? I look closer and this rat also has the body of a squirrel. Hmmm. I look again and this rat IS a squirrel. A completely white squirrel. I was amazed and I looked for a long time, then I thought to get my camera, but before I had a chance, it ran off and I couldn’t find it again. But, thanks to the Internet, I found an image so you can see something like what I saw on my tree.

Also thanks to the Internet, I learned a few things about white squirrels. They are the same species as the brown squirrel, but with a genetic mutation. They are very rare, since they are easy to spot and usually don’t survive long enough to mate. There is as much information as you could possibly want, like…

The genetic explanation for white squirrels
Towns that claim to be Home of the White Squirrel
The Albino Squirrel Preservation Society
The White Squirrel Research Institute
White Squirrel News
Many things you can buy with white squirrels on it - here and here and here

Later in the day, I’m telling Noel about how I saw this white squirrel and she asks if it acted different than other squirrels. I said no, its tail moved the same and it climbed on the trees the same. She said this would be a good post for my blog.

I thought, well, it would be all right, but is there any meaning in a white squirrel?

Then she went on to explain that it would be a good post because someone might expect a white squirrel to act differently because it looks so different, but it doesn’t. It is a reminder to not judge a book by its cover and to not assume anything when someone looks different.

Well, Noel found the meaning and she was right. It is a good post after all.