It was around the time I turned 28 when a squirrelly young albino in a brilliantly white coat appeared outside my front door, half grown and not yet as wary of humans as city squirrels quickly learn to be.
He didn't actually live in my trees - he hailed from somewhere just across the alley - but my little front yard and the boulevard elm tree were part of his scraggly turf, and I was delighted when I saw him around again and again after the first astonished sighting.
Jacque was my girlfriend at the time, and lived in the house here - we both started tossing food his way when he came around. Jacque decided his name was "Binny," and it was.
At first, Binny kept his distance, but soon he began to come closer, almost within arms reach. His head cranked this way and that, the bright eyes, pink and red, examining us and the food from different angles for a few moments. Then he would cautiously move in and grab it with his teeth. If he felt comfortable, hed stay right there and eat, holding it with his strangely human little white hands. If a car came by or someone came down the sidewalk, he'd run up the elm tree and munch in the safety of the low branches.
When we fed him, we talked to him. We started saying his name in a certain way, like people do with pets - soon we could call Binny with some reliability, from all the way across the neighborhood. When he appeared, wed talk to him a bit, which made him feel comfortable coming closer, and by the autumn of 2005 Binny was sitting on the picnic table out front with us, eating from our hands.
Soon enough the air started getting cool, the leaves all started to die, and we wondered how Binny would survive his first long, cold winter on this earth. We fed him double time, helping him plump up before everything froze. Then the snow flew, the outdoor molecules all slowed down, and Binny was nowhere to be seen for the next several months.
When spring finally returned, so did Binny, and I found many pleasurable moments in the Now, appreciating the hell out of this reality, while in Binny's presence. There was just something soothing and transcendentally-tinged about going outside, calling out for an albino squirrel that would come scampering from one direction or another, and hanging out with him - me reading or thinking, him munching contentedly on some food I'd given him, within arm's reach yet relaxed enough to close his eyes while he savored every bite.
That spring, Binny became more than a curiosity, and became, in some strange way, a friend. We would never bond the way I had with my dog, but this was fine - he was a free creature, a wild city squirrel, a free agent. But he knew me, and I knew him, and I knew he didn't just enjoy my food, but also my presence.
And this was beautiful.
http://teapotshappen.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/binny-the-albino-squirrel
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White Monarch albino deerby myoung105701,398 views
Omg so cute guys
Junior48210 1 week ago
@Bethroze the squirrels or the mantises aren't albinos? Binny definitely was, red eyes and all.
ZapZang 2 weeks ago
There not albino. They dont have red eyes.We have them here in warner robins!
Bethroze 2 weeks ago
So cute! :3
Davrainbow 1 month ago
LOVED this!!!
AusMom 3 months ago
I found an albino praying mantis in the parking lot of best buy xD
webkinzlps4ever 5 months ago
We have one that was born from our all-black squirrel friend. Check it out on my channel.
DadsMinions 5 months ago
Nice story, thanks for the share !
HPISFBankrupter 7 months ago
Albino squirrels are very rare..about 1/100,000 births..we had one in our neighborhood in NJ and unfortunatly she fell to hear death(was found in between two branches at bottom of tree) She was a female with red eyes. The good news is another one(probably more than one) has been spotted in the neighborhood. Havent got close enough yet to see if it has the tell tale red eyes yet.
mabes07840 7 months ago
I feel like pure white animals arnt of this world.... there just so darn amazing looking
XxemogirleyxX 9 months ago