Obscura Day 2017! Join our global celebration of exploration and discovery. May 6 window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({ appId : '206394544492', xfbml : true, version : 'v2.5' }); FB.Event.subscribe('edge.create', function(response) { Cookies.set('fb_subscriber', '1', { expires: 200, path: '/' }); }); FB.Event.subscribe('edge.remove', function(response) { Cookies.set('fb_subscriber', '0', { expires: 200, path: '/' }); }); }; (function(d, s, id){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Sign In Join Find Near The Atlas Top Destinations Newly Added Places Most Popular Places Random Place Lists Add a Place Newly Added Places View All Places » Edgartown, Massachussetts Heath Hen Sculpture 41.4133, -70.6035 Northern Mariana Islands Atomic Bomb Loading Pits 15.0709, 145.6412 Aarhus, Denmark Christian Jacobsen Drakenberg's Last Home 56.1547, 10.2096 Monterey, California Fort Ord 36.6266, -121.6914 Top Destinations Countries Australia Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Cities Amsterdam Barcelona Beijing Berlin Boston Budapest Chicago London Los Angeles Mexico City Montreal Moscow New Orleans New York Paris Philadelphia Rome San Francisco Seattle Stockholm Tokyo Toronto Vienna Washington, D.C. SEE ALL 5604 DESTINATIONS IN THE ATLAS Stories BROWSE STORIES BY Columns Features Interactive News Video Visual Most Recent Stories View All Stories » One of the Earliest Industrial Spies Was a French Missionary Stationed in China 16 hours ago The Largest Centaur in the Solar System Has Rings 17 hours ago Who Is Shaving Virginia's Cats? 18 hours ago College Student Shotguns 13 Beers During Half-Marathon 20 hours ago Events Quick Links All Events Obscura Day 2017 Explore Events Chicago Los Angeles New York Philadelphia San Francisco Seattle Washington, D.C. Upcoming Events View All Events » Apr 29 Los Angeles Uncovering Echo Park Apr 29 Washington, D.C. Touched by Cereal Royalty Apr 30 Brooklyn Uzbek Food Shopping Tour in Brooklyn Apr 30 Reseda Homeward Bound: Pigeon Navigation Trips Quick Links All Trips Where We Travel Berlin Bhutan Bulgaria Cuba Iceland Kazakhstan Morocco The Amazon Ukraine Venice Yucatán Upcoming Trips View All Trips » Unlocking Berlin's Wunderkammer May 25–May 29, 2017 Music and Medinas of Morocco Jun 23–Jun 30, 2017 Hidden Venice with a Psycho-Mambo Twist Jul 10–Jul 16, 2017 Kazakhstan and the 2017 World Expo Sep 02–Sep 10, 2017 Obscura Day 2017 Sign In Join Search Find or Near Search 59.3099, 18.0203 Lost Toys of the Nybohov Funicular, Sweden What's near me? if (!isSmallScreen()) { googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('Rotational_Top_Slot'); }); } When Squirrels Were One of America’s Most Popular Pets Benjamin Franklin even wrote an ode to a fallen one. by Natalie Zarrelli April 28, 2017 9,392 Email This Article From To Please separate multiple addresses with commas. We won't share addresses with third parties. Subscribe me to the Atlas Obscura Newsletter displayFbCount('http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/pet-squirrel-craze', '.js-facebook-count'); Pete the squirrel, who was a pet of President Harding. Library of Congress/LC-DIG-hec-42488 In 1722, a pet squirrel named Mungo passed away. It was a tragedy: Mungo escaped its confines and met its fate at the teeth of a dog. Benjamin Franklin, friend of the owner, immortalized the squirrel with a tribute. “Few squirrels were better accomplished, for he had a good education, had traveled far, and seen much of the world.” Franklin wrote, adding, “Thou art fallen by the fangs of wanton, cruel Ranger!” Mourning a squirrel’s death wasn’t as uncommon as you might think when Franklin wrote Mungo’s eulogy; in the 18th- and 19th centuries, squirrels were fixtures in American homes, especially for children. While colonial Americans kept many types of wild animals as pets, squirrels “were the most popular,”