taquito squirrel

Toronto squirrel captured on camera leaving 7-Eleven with a taquito

When talking about hilarious animal hijinks in the context of Toronto, most people will immediately bring up raccoons, and with good reason: Our city's illustrious trash pandas have been known to do some truly hysterical things in the pursuit of food.

But there's another furry creature, far more prevalent and with perhaps even cuter hands than the raccoon, that doesn't get nearly enough attention for doing things that amuse humans.

What I'm saying is that you shouldn't sleep on the humble eastern grey squirrel (most of whom are actually black around these parts thanks to a prominent colour morph gene, and a few who are actually white.)

Toronto squirrels will sit outside your window brandishing a knife. Toronto squirrels will run into a convenience store and steal chocolate bars.

Toronto squirrels will eat nuts out of your hand like adorable little angels, but don't you dare drop your hooman snack because they'll swipe and run away with it. Proudly. Adorably.

One can only assume that this is what happened outside a local 7-Eleven store on Wednesday afternoon when George Brown College art professor and folk musician Jen Foote saw a black squirrel scurrying past her car with a taquito in its mouth.

And I'm not talking about an appropriately-sized piece of taquito, but the entire thing. A full 7-Eleven taquito, variety unknown.

Foote tells blogTO that she was about to run an errand and was sitting in her car listening to music when she looked up to spot something extraordinary: "A squirrel with a taquito running down the alley."

She knew right away that it was a taquito in the squirrel's mouth, as she was right next to a 7-Eleven in Mimico.

"I fumbled for my phone to film it," she told blogTO on Thursday. "I was reminded of pizza rat from the NYC subway video and thought OMG… it's taquito squirrel!"

The professor got what she needed, and with a perfect bluegrass soundtrack in the background that she says "fit so serendipitously with the vid."

While she didn't capture a whole lot of the ambitious critter's journey, she says that it did make eye contact with her at one point. It was a moment too precious not to share, and it's been delighting people on Facebook now for just over a day.

Commenters in the popular Weird Toronto Facebook group are similarly praising the unique capture and its delightful soundtrack (Foote says the music playing in her car at the time was by Dan Tyminski, Alison Krauss and Union Station."

"There's the crab with knife video, the pizza rat of New York, and now we have Taquito Squirrel of Toronto," she says.

Long live taquito squirrel — and may his digestive system recover quickly from the unholiest of convenience store meals.

Lead photo by

Jen Foote


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