I bookmarked this link because at first glance I thought this squirrel was a piece of taxidermy that someone was a little too attached to.

Nope. This thing is alive…or was…in the 1940’s.

TIME magazine did a story about a Mrs. Mark Bullis who “adopted” a squirrel before his eyes were open after finding him in a tree (his squirrel mommy had regrettably passed on).

“Most squirrels,” LIFE noted (with a striking lack of evidence), “are lively and inquisitive animals who like to do tricks when they have an audience.” They do? At any rate, LIFE went on to observe that the squirrel, dubbed Tommy Tucker by the Bullis family, “is a very subdued little animal who has never had a chance to jump around in a big tree.”

“Mrs. Bullis’ main interest in Tommy,” LIFE continued, “is in dressing him up in 30 specially made costumes. Tommy has a coat and hat for going to market, a silk pleated dress for company, a Red Cross uniform for visiting the hospital.”

Quite the docile little thing. Am I the only one who noticed Mrs. Bullis was, I suppose, cross-dressing her beloved pet? Why name a squirrel “Tommy” and fashion 30 dresses for him? Perhaps she was very progressive for her time. Way to go, Mrs. B!

See more here.