S e c r e t s

This rare edition of 250 depicts dueling squirrels, one in UK trunks and the other donning USA. Peter carved his squirrel box figurine around the time of the World Cup and the BP oil spill, leading us to believe that the boxing rodents had something to do with national tensions between these two countries. Being the wildlife lover that Peter is, the more likely explanation is species specific. There was a time in the UK when red squirrels were plentiful. That began to change when the Eastern Gray was introduced from the USA sometime in the late 1880’s. Today in the U.K., the gray squirrel has out-competed the red for territory, with 2.5 million gray versus only 140,000. Most of the reds are in Scotland, so Peter has never seen one in person! However, there was an important red squirrel in his early life – Tufty – who taught road safety to children on television. Peter even joined the Tufty Club. “Tufty” is inscribed, along with the Latin names for these two squirrels.