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Going squirrelly in Illinois 07 May 2005 ~ 03:50 Nightdragon (Mark) and I just got back from Chicago. Or, to be more precise, Elmhurst, a western suburb of Chicago, where our friend and president of The Squirrel Lovers Club, Gregg Bassett, lives with his wife Kathy and pet squirrel Happy.We first planned our trip to Chicago after Gregg generously offered to drive us down to a town in southern Illinois called Olney, where they have a colony of pure white squirrels. As Mark had always wanted to see Chicago, I thought �Why the hell not?� and went ahead and booked tickets. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Elmhurst, which was a very nice hotel. The bed was absolutely huge (an American king size bed is bigger than a UK king size which is more the size of a US queen. Our houses just aren�t that big)! There was also an indoor pool, a Jacuzzi and a sauna, all of which we got to use. We spent a lot of time with the Bassetts, who are really lovely people. We watched video clips of various shows that Gregg had appeared on promoting the Squirrel Lovers Club, we fed the squirrels in their garden, and we sort of made friends with Happy, who is adorable but very much a Daddy�s girl and only seems really at ease with Gregg. The drive to Olney took about five hours and we stayed in a motel overnight. We met up with another couple from another Chicagoland suburb, themselves also members of the club. We met lots of the locals who were very impressed that we had come all the way from London to see the white squirrels. And we had a lot of luck spotting the squirrels�several of them in fact. We even ventured into one lady�s garden and she came out and offered to put peanut butter and crackers out to bait them. Everyone was very friendly and down-to-earth. We almost felt like celebrities with everyone wanting to meet us, not only in Olney but in Elmhurst too. On Wednesday Cathy took us into Chicago itself. We were very impressed and definitely prefer it to New York. I couldn�t believe the vastness of Lake Michigan. It was truly beautiful as were many of the buildings. Getting to ride the El was a treat for us too. The biggest surprise of all came on our last day. We were at Gregg�s and went outside with him to see if any of his garden squirrels were waiting to be fed, when we glimpsed a little kitten running under the garden shed! It turned out that there were three kittens, the litter of a local stray mother cat. Gregg very much wanted to keep one of these six-week-old kitties, but it all hinges on whether Happy will accept her or not. As you can see, Gregg is Happy�s devoted servant! And good for him that he is.
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