“Baby II” roams UNT campus

Can you say, "Awww!"

by John P. Meyer

Saddened by the loss of Baby the albino squirrel (offspring of the original campus albino squirrel, Theolonius) to raptor predation last summer, students at UNT have nevertheless carried on with their studies, demonstrating that trademark strength against adversity that's such a common a thread among hardy North Texans. The group mourning ritual certainly helped, but nothing could have possibly filled the void left by the absence of anything but gray-to-buff-colored squirrels roaming the trees and lawns of campus.

Nothing 'til now, that is.

Glad tidings, UNT campusites: there's white in them thar trees (again).

Word from the UNT News Service is that Baby left behind a white-coated, pink-eyed legacy in the form of a too-cute-for-words offspring which was first spotted capering among the branches near Maple Hall last week. This wiggly-nosed love child appears to be one of a clutch (gaggle? flock? murder?) of squirrelettes seen traveling together in the treetops, and it so happens that none other than K.T. Shiue of the North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts - the same chap who supplied the photos of Baby for the Baby Memorial - has been able to snap some shots of the new albino baby (Baby II? As of yet there is no "official" name for the beast...).

The homepage of the Albino Squirrel Preservation Society may appear to be running a name-suggestion contest right now, but the evidence suggests this is a legacy contest carried over from the previous squirrel's (Baby I's) reign. UNT Public Information Officer Ellen Rossetti confirms that the new squirrel baby currently has no name, and that "in the past, the naming process has taken a while."

More on this breaking story as information becomes available.