People do eat them here. Some of the old timers do it just because they want to, and there are those who do it because they need to, but there is no shortage of squirrels, that's for sure.

One year there were so many that there were thousands of them lining the roadsides. Luckily, we have darn near as many vultures here and they are one swift clean up crew.

I've only ate one squirrel. That was shot by a guy who was camping in the hollow below our house. He invited me to share it with him, and I'd wanted to taste it for a long time, so he cleaned it while I got a fire going and we slowly smoked it with oak and hickory and then ate it. It reminded me a bit of rabbit in texture, but the meat took the smoke very well and it tasted great.

I've never had it yet, but old timers and those that have tell me that squirrel gravy is the best ever. I didn't see enough fat on the squirrel we ate to make any gravy