Tamiasciurus douglasii
On February 22, 2026, a Douglas squirrel was struck and killed by a driver right next to the mailboxes across from my house on my street.
I had just watched this same squirrel eat hazelnuts in my backyard.
She still had a hazelnut in her mouth when she died - the same hazelnut I gave her.
All she wanted was to carry the hazelnut across the street and hide it somewhere in the soil.
Is that really too much to ask?
We buried the squirrel in a flowerpot in our yard. I was crying.
Douglas squirrels are small squirrels native and endemic to the Pacific Northwest coastal areas. In fact, they are not found anywhere else in the world. They need protection - as do all squirrels and all animals.
Tragically, this is not the first time a squirrel has been killed while crossing our street. Despite "squirrel crossing" signs, drivers are still going too fast.
Driving, of course, kills humans too. But the toll on wildlife is truly staggering. If we placed memorial signs by the road every time an animal was killed, like we sometimes do for human deaths, we would run out of signs.
Our dependence on cars has created a world in which the very instincts animals evolved for survival have become maladaptive. Many prey animals, such as bunnies and opossums, either freeze or move unpredictably when faced with danger. This works against predators - but fails against fast-moving vehicles.
We created this world, and it is our deontological duty to try to fix it.