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June 03, 2009
Thief or Patriot?....Cemetery Squirrels Nuts About U.S. Flags
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Cemetery squirrels nuts about U.S. flags
American flags are caught high in a pine tree Thursday at Mount Hope Cemetery in Port Huron where one of two thieving cemetery squirrels had placed them for a nest. A recent high wind scattered them among the tree's branches.
Rogue rodent discovered robbing graves of Old Glory
(Times Herald photos by MARK R. RUMMEL)
If he didn't see it happen, Ron Ceglarek said he probably wouldn't believe it.
A squirrel -- weighing about 3 pounds -- got up on its hind legs, tore a small American flag from a small staff next to a grave stone, rolled it up and carried it up a tree to a waiting mate building a nest.
It happened not just once, but about dozen times.
"He plucks them right off," Ceglarek, superintendent of Mount Hope Cemetery in Port Huron, said of a rogue squirrel that is stealing flags. "If I didn't see it, and I didn't follow the squirrel, I never would have believed it.
"But it is a band of tree rodents."
Every Memorial Day, volunteers put small American flags next to grave stones of the about 965 veterans buried at the Krafft Road cemetery.
All the flags were undisturbed during a Mass on Memorial Day. But the next day, cemetery workers noticed the flags were disappearing -- the small, wooden staffs still were in the ground, but Old Glory itself had been removed.
At first, the cemetery's staff was confused. Then, Ceglarek spotted the thief in action.
"It looked like he had a little bandana in his mouth," he said of the squirrel.
Ceglarek has collected a handful of bare staffs. The staples used to attach the flags remain firmly in place with pieces of red, white and blue fabric stuck to them.
The squirrels' nest is in Ward L of the cemetery --a ward now conspicuously without flags.
"Clean as a whistle," Ceglarek said.
The nest, which is about 45 feet up a spruce tree, can be seen by an observant cemetery visitor as red, white and blue cloth drapes over branches.
"Maybe they are trying to tell us it is going to be a hard winter," Ceglarek said with a laugh. "Why use leaves when you can get flags?"
As Ceglarek and Celeste Silvers, the cemetery's office manager, showed off the nest Thursday, one of the squirrels sat watching in a bush about 15 feet away. The other squirrel scurried around a nearby tree.
Most years, Ceglarek said the cemetery leaves the flags up until June 14, which is Flag Day. But, he said, the policy will be revisited.
"This crew here," he said referring to the squirrels, "is going to hamper that, no doubt."
"We're going to almost have to take them out early," he said. "They have one ward almost cleared out."
The other option?
"Shoot 'em," Silvers said. "But you don't want to do that."
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Wild Thing's comment............
I love this story, I hope they don't hurt the squirrels. Maybe get them their own tiny Flags. haha or other material and drap it near the tree, they can think they are thinking of it themselves and maybe leave the Flags alone.
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......Thank you RAC for sending this to me.
RAC has a website that is awesome. 336th Assault Helicopter Company
13th Combat Aviation Battalion - 1st Aviation Brigade - Soc Trang, Republic of Vietnam
Posted by Wild Thing at June 3, 2009 06:45 AM
Comments
I think it's really sweet and cute. How funny that the squirrels are only taking the flag part for their nests. They must like them obviously.
Let's call 'em Betsy Squirrel Ross and George Washingsquirrel.
Posted by: Lynn at June 3, 2009 08:21 AM
They are building a patriotic nest.
Posted by: TomR at June 3, 2009 11:59 AM
That one pictured is funny, guilty, you bet they are. I've got both, the Greys, 7 of them and those, too many. Guess which the thieves are? I have two chipmunks that annoy the heck out of me, better check under the hood a couple times a week for their 'food' stashed on the manifold, where it gets hot and stinks. I had a nest of them inside my pickup a few years ago, it was a happy day when they took to the trees and I cleaned out the cab and sealed up their entry, unscreened air vents from under the cab. One of those squirrels like in the photo rode on the frame of my F250 all the way from home to North of Seattle and back once because it wouldn't leave from inside the truck frame and I needed the truck, a 200 mile round trip on the interstate where it disembarked after we got home. Payback!!!
Posted by: Jack at June 3, 2009 12:25 PM
When we lived in Ohio, we had squirrels like that, Red Fox Squirrels but when my wife was going to Kent State, they had Black squirrels there beautiful black shiny coats. they were protected, damn it, and they don't seem to be anywhere else.
As an aside though, those tails are great for making 'Wet Flys' or some types of Caddis Nymphs. I used to Fly Fish when in Ohio, now I have a trout stream behind my house but I refuse to pay $30 dollars fot the trout stamp plus a fishing lincense. Damn democrats.
Posted by: Mark at June 3, 2009 04:45 PM
Lynn, giggle...good one.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 3, 2009 11:31 PM
Tom, big smile, yes they are.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 3, 2009 11:32 PM
Jack, hahahaha that is so funny. Thank you
for sharing about that.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 3, 2009 11:34 PM
Mark,yes the Democrats really do ruin
everything. What gets me too is how
much of our countries parks and
streams all kinds of places are
government protected now not like
it used to be. I am not sure if
protected is the right word but
it is like any home as well within
a certain amount of miles is also
considered part of the government
ownership if they ever want to
make a thing about it, it would
be devastating.
Posted by: Wild Thing at June 3, 2009 11:38 PM
