There were proto-squirrels around during the Miocene period, up to twenty million years ago.
Their name means ‘shadow-tail’ if you excavate it all the way town to the Ancient Greek, and they have used the ensuing time to develop into five subfamilies, 50 genera and 250 species.
They are distantly related to dormice.
And they have an unexpected dark side.
It’s like this: we always have this endearing picture of the squirrel with his little nut, nibbling away like some Hallmark Card pin-up; we’ve watched his antics on our washing line, mentally adding the Mission Impossible theme as a backdrop for an animal who will not be kept from his vegetarian source of protein.
The inventive creatures collect sources of protein and then they find a hiding place in which to stash them. Somewhere safe: but somewhere unexpected, where no-one will ever find them.
All winter, the stash is safe. No-one expects the location the squirrel has chosen. But in the Spring, life is hard for the shadow-tail.
They can’t eat cellulose, you see, and all those fertile nuts begin to sprout. They look to tree buds, but it’s not enough: squirrels need something rich in protein,carbohydrates and fat.
There is something rich in protein, carbohydrates and fat which fits the bill: but it’s not vegetarian. When the going gets tough, the shadow-tail gets carnivorous.
Naturalist JO Whitaker, who actually studied the stomach contents of 139 thirteen-lined ground squirrels, found four had been dining on birds while one had indulged in a small shrew. WG Bradley looked at 609 antelope ground squirrels back in ’68 and found that at least 10 per cent of them had been indulging in the odd lizard or rodent.*
Spring is the squirrel’s darkest hour. Hunger can drive it to the most unexpected lengths.
The squirrel is not the only one to have secret stashes and an unsettling dark side. Here in the UK we have been musing this week on the shadow-tailed side of our history; the business of witchcraft.
Pendle Hill, Lancashire: 1612. Reading between the lines, the villagers must have made some powerful enemies along the way. An 85-year-old woman and her daughter were arrested and taken to Lancashire Castle, accused of witchcraft. And as they languished, a plot was purportedly uncovered.
If the men in authority were correct this must indeed have been a witchcraft capital of some note. Three wizards and 17 witches were accused of trying to blow up the castle to free their kind.
If I had a witch’s skills, I wouldn’t be blowing up castles just to free a couple of colleagues. Surely a shape shifting spell might to the trick; or a couple of invisibility cloaks; a sleeping spell for the guards? There are ways round these things. Any self-respecting witch knows guile is a far more effective approach than brawn.
But as we know, common sense has little to do with the old witch pogroms, and ten people were hanged after trial.
Virtually 400 years later: and maintenance works at Lower Black Moss Reservoir, at the foot of Pendle Hill, revealed something totally unexpected. A mound of earth and stones revealed a seventeenth century cottage in a wonderful state of preservation.
Have a look at the news article here. The leader of the archaeology team told a BBC reporter: “The building is a microcosm for the rise and fall of this area, from the time of the Pendle witches to the industrial age. There are layers of local history right before your eyes.”
What hit the national news, though, was a stash found in the walls: a mummified cat.
How strange that this find falls so close to the 400th anniversary of the witch trials. The country is abuzz. Was this the home of some of the Pendle witches? An evil headquarters?
To answer this, context is king. Because like our friend Cyril the Unsettling Squirrel, the people of Britain have been making dubious stashes for centuries. Instances of cats being holed up in walls abound: the Red Cat Hotel in King’s Lynn derives its name from the find in their walls. Check out this folkloric survey of incidents in Dorset, and you will see that cats in walls were very much the thing back then, before streetlights, when science was younger.
In life they chased mice: in death, evil spirits.
So while our forbears may have had a dark side, we were not a race of wizards and witches. Rather, our stashes were there for supernatural reasons, to ward off – we knew not quite what.
Our squirrel and Pendle prove only that we stash in the most unexpected of places to ward off the dreaded: whether it be ravenous hunger or crippling fear and impotence.
Perhaps we stash because it makes us feel safe. But when others find it, it will always be a tale of the unexpected.
Picture source here; written in response to Side View’s weekend theme: The Unexpected. Her themes are always a treat: go and check this weeks out here.
Kate Shrewsday 
a wonderful Kate tour around the dark-ish sides. thanks Kate
You’re welcome, Sidey. Must be strange reading these damp dark posts in the middle of your gorgeous South African Summer.Loved your observations on rain yesterday 🙂
Well, I already had a few goosebumps this morning (it’s 10 degrees!), but this little tale just made the matter much worse! 🙂 Witches and mummified cats; fascinating, yet somewhat frightening to contemplate (rather like a Stephen King novel).
Of course, I went Googling and instantly found another such tale right at the top of the list: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5200089/400-year-old-mummified-cat-found-in-walls-of-cottage.html
Think I’ll go brew another cup of coffee to get rid of my chills! 🙂
Enjoy it, Karen 🙂 It is all a bit Stephen King, isn’t it? Fascinating how people coped with the long dark winters here.
I notice your Telegraph article has someone saying the cats were to ward off witches. That would scuper the Pendle witches theory for good…But people are putting two and two together to make five over here: it’s just too good a coincidence, a cat mummified in a ruined house at the bottom of Pendle Hill, to waste. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, isn’t that what they say?
I am a little in awe of the way you draw connections. Maybe more than a little. And living so close to the American hotbed of witchcraft persecution, the Pendle cottage is really fascinating. And who knew about my wee gray squirrels? Perhaps I should set them on our mice in lieu of a proper mummified cat?
Thank you – and thanks for all your support elsewhere in cyberspace, Cameron. I’ve not found any research to indicate whether the grays have started on the local vole population yet- but there could be some serious mileage in training a couple of squirrels as mousers. And when you do, make sure you film it for YouTube so the rest of us can take notes…
All we ever found in the walls of old house when doing some remodeling was a box of 20 Mule Team Borax, half used and opened, but, now that I think of it, it was next to the chimney. Thankfully, there were no mules nearby.
What an interesting post, Kate, which is sure to bring on a bevy of mummified comments. Well done!
Well, what a relief that there were no mules in the walls, Penny. That would have set the cat amongst the pigeons in our thread today…have you looked up the chimney? The Dorset survey has many odd things stuffed up there…
Our house isn’t nearly so old, but MTM was doing some work under it several months ago and founds layers of stuff in the dirt: bottle and bits of china and pottery. Even a toy soldier. It was really fun to try to imagine the people who put them there. Stashes are a way for long-gone people to say hi. Great story, Kate.
Andra, you remind me of my grandmother’s house in Yorkshire where we used to delight in making similar finds. Did you find any clay pipes? Disposable conveniences once, and now – just as you say -a way for an eighteenth century gent to doff his hat.
I like your take on the theme, Kate. Carnivorous squirrels and mummified cats in walls – I think the latter would be more likely to give me nightmares than to make me feel protected… 🙂
I totally agree, Ruth: but then I have light at the flick of a switch and a framework of scientific knowledge on which to draw. Without those, a cat holed up in the wall might just have seemed like the lesser of two evils…
The idea of finding an unexpected stash is appealing . . . but not if the stash includes mummified feline remains. 😀
Quite, Nancy. There was speculation that the cat might have been bricked up alive, but after your recent trip to the vets you will be aware that this is a physical impossibility.
One of the very first posts of yours I read on your blog was about immurement, Kate. It’s an utterly fascinating subject and this post provides an insight into its possible functions (other than disposing of a body :-)) Thanks for another engrossing post.
Amazing what women had to do to survive in the days of yore. If no one would offer help, scare the offering out of them? Poor cats…
Not to diminish the interesting witch info, but I’m absolutely fascinated to learn squirrels occasionally eat meat. I thought they were strict vegetarians.
I didn’t know that about squirrels … your post made me shift away from my wall 😉
I know that historically people were a cruel bunch, but really… poor cats!
I really enjoyed hearing the story of the cottage, particularly because of the time that it stood, but also because of the mystery and legends of the Pendle Hill witches.
I remember feeding a blue-eyed baby squirrel a chunk of my ham salad barm once – it trotted over to me, and, using both of its hands, took it from me. I’m sure it was smiling. That was a nice experience, but I didn’t know that squirrels weren’t supposed to eat meat.
Here on the southeast American coast, we mostly excavated shark’s teeth, as kids. Take it for whatever it may be worth…
I can just see all these kids with jars of sharks teeth shoved in cupboards. I’m envious. The most we can rustle up is cowrie shells.
Acorns are very useful for dyeing. To be honest, if I see a squirrel in the garden he’ll have to fight me for the ones I’ve hidden.
I eat meat too… but not squirrels.
I can always count on you to look at the situation laterally, Nuvofelt. Now trying hard to dispel pictures of garden squirrel conquests somewhere in the wilds of Hampshire.
It would seem that for every witch or wizard consciously practicing evil, there were hundreds who weren’t.
I am amazed at that picture – I was certain it had to have been taken in the Natal Midlands!
I know! These geological formations, they get all over the place, Col: although I have a feeling the scale might be a little different in Natal.
I once lived in one of these old houses with a “secret body” stashed in it, never brought me bad luck nor good…a few bad dreams when I was told about it but still…………
I can’t imagine there are many places you could live these days without being on or very near an ancient burial ground or some ancient bones
It’s not the ghosts that hurt you, it’s real live people!