Do some squirrels belong?

[BG and Gavin]

This is a crazy question, but I have to wonder...

Gavin loves to chase the squirrels in our yard - along the fence, up the tree, across the phone lines, he will even see a squirrel from inside and ask to go out just to chase it.   But on three occasions recently I have noticed Gavin not reacted to a squirrel in the yard.  Twice when the squirrel was fearlessly walking along the fence and once walking right through the middle of the yard.  Gavin was less than ten feet away and just casually watching the intruder.  Could it be that it was the same squirrel on all three occasions and Gavin is okay with him, but chases the others away?  How does he know the difference? All the black squirrels look the same to me.

I know human and cats can be included into a dog's "pack" but what about a wild animal?

[BG and Gavin]

JD is far too cool to waste his time on squirrels!

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

Karen, he such a good Doodle!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Thank you, Lonnie, he really is. :) 

[Julie and Max]

Ro I thought all squirrels were black lol

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Ive got a theory....it is the same squirrel that he has chased before and not caught and Gavin is smart enough to know not to waste his energy if he can't catch him. Just my thought!!! lol

[BG and Gavin]

Good thought Sue.  Gavin never catches anything - he seems to handicap himself - I have seen him do a slow chase with mice and possums too - no killer instinct lol.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Thats funny! He just enjoys the chase, but like my Bella, probably doesn't have a clue what she'd do with it if she did catch it. I see Bella go charging for something in our yard, like a bird or lizard and she just stomps on the breaks when she gets within biting distance. I'm always at the ready to yell "Leave it", but she stops before I need to. Nope, no killer instincts here either. They both just want to play !

[BG and Gavin]

For sue Sue.  I once saw hit lightly tapping his foot on the ground and there was a mouse just moving ahead of his paw.  Thus, he would not even hurt a mouse!

[Gail and Bailey]

Beautiful black squirrel!!  We only have big reddish colored ones here in Indiana and when we visit in Florida they have smaller gray ones.  I think the black squirrels are the prettiest!  I am sure that Bailey will chase a squirrel no matter what color it is!  

[BG and Gavin]

He is a Gail.  Note: I borrowed the pic from google images, but he looked exactly like that :)

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Wow, I had to check to see where you live, because I'd never seen a black squirrel before. Really striking! You know, the dogs here are reactive to squirrels, and haven't gotten use to any in our yard to my knowledge, but we have a couple medium-sized cockatoos that definitely have gotten use to certain wild animals they see on a daily basis, specifically, squirrels. Its probably the same one each time, because we don't have an abundance of squirrels in our yard, but I have no idea if the birds could tell one squirrel from another. Maybe Gavin didn't react to the squirrel because he just didn't feel like it? Or maybe he is use to the one in particular... Good question!

[BG and Gavin]

So I had no idea black squirrels were rare outside of Ontario until I just did a bit of research.  Have a look at the following page about a little town one hour north of us that has white squirrels in residence:  http://www.journeysontario.ca/Adventure/White_Squirrels.html