Snowy squirrel stuns Arkansas traveler

Call me Worth. Some days ago — never mind how many precisely — having little or no money in my pocket, I went walking around a Minnesota lake.

• I was amazed before I was half way through.

State of play: The squirrel in the photo above stunned me into near paralysis. I understand why Bigfoot photos are shaky. I fumbled for my phone fearing I'd spook the creature back into the brush.

• It had simply never occurred to me that these rodents could be albino or that I might see one in the wild. I needed evidence no matter how blurry.

Stunning stat: It's estimated only one in 100,000 squirrels is born with the condition (that seems high based on how many tree rats are in my neighborhood).

Between the lines: Either this squirrel gets around town or the gene is prevalent in the area. Last October, an albino squirrel was spotted in the front yard of an Eden Prairie, Minn., residence — the same town I was in last week.

• Since that photographer named his Rocky, I feel compelled to call mine Rocky II.

The bottom line: Along with the possibly extinct ivory-billed woodpecker , an albino squirrel is now my photographic "Moby-Dick."