Crazy Odds, Part 1

In addition to that statue of Grant we saw on our walk around the National Mall last week, we also saw this:

A white squirrel!

The sight was so unexpected that of course, I had to do some research on the phenomena. It turns out that there are two types of white squirrels in North America, albino and leucistic. Albinism is a congenital lack of pigment in eyes, fur, and skin, and leucism is a condition of partial loss of pigmentation, and never in the eyes.

Ours was clearly albino, its eyes were pink. Albino squirrels are exceptionally rare, occurring 1 or fewer times in 100,000 births, but my research revealed that there are several places across the U.S. known for their robust colonies of white squirrels, most of which are leucistic.

Coincidentally, one of these towns famous for its white squirrel population is Brevard, N.C.-- a community right on the way from Atlanta to Asheville, a route we planned to take on the way home from our visit with my sister. No question, we had to stop!