Round-tailed Ground Squirrel

I've fallen in love... Big black eyes, tan and gray, and somewhere between a prairie dog and a rat... this little creature has entered my heart:

Did you notice how cute he or she is? Here's a better picture... 

This little creature is called a round-tailed ground squirrel. I've never heard of such a thing, or seen one, until i stumbled upon them at the San Tan Mountain Regional Park, east of Phoenix, last November...

We both froze when we saw each other. Then, slowly, he (or she..its kind of hard to tell) came closer to my car.. and I took some close up pictures. Which inspired this pastel drawing...

Round-tailed Ground Squirrel, Soft Pastel on light blue-gray toned paper, 18x24"

Then winter happened in Arizona... you know that one month where we get something called cold weather... and the ground squirrels went into hibernation.
But, this past week, I went to the Desert Botanical Garden, in Phoenix, and fell in love with them all over again... Because it's spring, and spring is a marvelous time of year.
It's the time of year when we get to see cute, little ground squirrels munching on new leaves as they climb up high into the trees...

 They are just so darn cute. 

And this one is definitely going to find its way into some new pastel drawings.