I have been a squirrel enthusiast for as long as I can remember, and
those of you who have been subjected to my efforts to spread awareness
of Squirrel Appreciation Day today will know that my fondness for these
furry creatures has not dimmed with time. Unfortunately,
squirrel-related items aren’t so easy to come by. That’s why I was
ecstatic to discover the adorable Treehouse the Squirrel lurking near
the cash wrap at the bookstore where I work.
Over the years,
I’ve collected a few of Ty’s Beanie Babies. I was never an avid
collector, particularly at the height of their popularity, but now that
it’s pretty easy to find many of them in the bargain bin or in a heap at
a garage sale, I don’t mind plunking down a couple of dollars for an
ostrich or a koala, and certainly not for a squirrel as cuddly as this
little fellow. From the looks of him, Treehouse is probably a Red
Squirrel, though the tag doesn’t specify. What it does say is that he
was “born” on July 12, 2007. The tag also reads, “From my house in a
birch tree / There’s oh-so-much that you can see / Let me just say, I
love my view / It helps me to find acorns, too!”
He’s very
realistic-looking, and his fur is among the softest of any Beanie Baby I
own. It’s silky and reddish-brown for the most part, though his front
is a light beige color. While the bulk of his fur has a speckly quality
to it, his tail is all one color, and it’s much thicker and furrier than
the rest of him. About three inches of his five-inch-long tail is
unattached to the main body, meaning there’s plenty of wiggle room for
him to twitch his tail, though you’ll probably have to flick it to get
it going. The tail stands straight up in the air but can be briefly bent
into a question mark.
Treehouse stands about five inches tall
on two paws, with realistic-looking haunches. Meanwhile, his two upper
paws clutch an acorn, which is still plush but is made of a different
material than the body, making it less soft to the touch. Treehouse has
no visible mouth, but he does have a little nose consisting of two black
stitches, along with two tiny black plastic eyes and two petite ears.
I’d already had Treehouse for more than a year when I bought Jeremy, my
Gray Squirrel finger puppet. Treehouse is more realistic-looking,
though Jeremy is certainly a high-quality toy. The two are of comparable
size, but Treehouse is about half an inch taller; if they’d been made
by the same company, I might take this as evidence that Treehouse is a
Fox Squirrel rather than a Red Squirrel, since the latter are smaller
than Gray Squirrels, but I’m sure the two companies didn’t confer with
one another on their designs.
At any rate, they’re close
enough in size that it’s easy to imagine them as buddies, striking out
together on a peanut-scavenging expedition. Ty also makes a couple of
other squirrels, though I don’t own either of them. Based on the
pictures I’ve seen, it looks like Treehouse is the cutest, with Nutty
coming in a close second and Nuts trailing them both by a good margin.
At the moment, Treehouse is also the cheapest of the three, so this
might be a good time to snatch him up.
Are squirrels more than
just rats with big, bushy tails to you? If so, you might want to invite
Treehouse into your home. And hey, you don’t even have to worry about
him depleting your nut supply!
No comments:
Post a Comment