Squirrel anatomy class

I got home from work to find that a large unfortunate tree rat was lying dead in my front yard, apparently the victim of Dakota's very fast and agile hunting skills. He had not been lifeless long as his body was still quite supple. The logical thing to do of course was to pick him up and chase Dustin and Lauren with him. While the loud high pitched squeals were anticipated, we decided to turn the squirrel's unfortunate demise into a science project. We decided to disect him and examine his organs! So off to the bridge we all went, Zac, Dustin Lauren and I, to educate ourselves. Here are the results. WARNING: if you are a little squeamish, this may not be for you!

This initial incision gave us a good view of the colon, liver, heart, lungs and stomach, and probably some other stuff we weren't sure of, as well as, well, his male components.

This is a view of the heart cut in two as well as the lungs. The dark red mass is coagulated blood. We did this on the bridge so we could feed the fish and turtles in the pond when we finished.

This is simply gross. Maybe we have lived out too long...

In this photo, we learned that Shrek was telling the truth when he said that eyes are filled with jelly, as seen here to the right of the skull.

We all wanted to see the brain intact, so we took the head to the scroll saw, cut off just the top of the cranium, and voila! We were able to extract it along with the mudulla oblongata (we assume that if crocodiles have one as Col. Sanders taught us, squirrels surely do too). Here is what we found:

Dustin is taking the brain to school tomorrow in a jar filled with alcohol. Lauren claimed the skull and the tail. Kym was thrilled, needless to say. Zac has claim to the exterior male genitalia, which he is considering placing on the desk of his athletics coach who gave him lunch detention today for arriving 4 minutes early rather than 5 minutes. There are, perhaps, many ways to interpret such a gesture. I counseled Zac that he may not want to take credit for the exhibit, if he elects to go through with it!

Well, that's it for another day. Who knows what tomorrow will bring!