Is it a squirrel, rat or squrat?

I was outside and saw what looked like a squirral jumping along the pickets of my fence. The only thing that set him apart from a squirrel was the fact that he had a skinned tail with a puff of hair at the end. I have never seen a rat in person. He was slightly smaller than a squirrel- is it a baby squirrel? Or is this a rat? Or is it a mix? Is it a squirrel, rat or squrat?
Rats and squirrels cannot interbreed, so what you saw certainly wasn't a 'squrat'. It sounds to me like a squirrel that had lost some of its tail fur - this can happen for various reasons, such as illness, starvation, attack by another animal, etc. You don't say which country you are in, so I don't know which species of squirrel and rat you are likely to have where you live, but here are some pictures of a grey squirrel (Scuirus carolinensis) and brown rat (Rattus norvegicus, also called the common rat or Norway rat) for you to compare to what you saw:





Grey squirrel:


http://www.freewebs.com/gunsandsports/sq鈥?/a>





Brown rat:


http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/photos/and鈥?/a>Is it a squirrel, rat or squrat?
We have several squirrel here with a rat tail, no fur of any kind on their tails. Looks like a whole nest of them

Report Abuse

Squrat..that is a new one. Probably a squirrel. I have seen them like that. They loose part of their tale (like being wounded in combat) with a car, cat, dog or another squirrel.





ROFL at the squrat
Probably a squirrel that had been 'caught' by a dog or cat or something and his tail had been skinned.
squirrel
Maybe a flying squirrel, they are smaller than a regular size squirrel.
it is a squirrel who might have a skin condition which caused it to lose the hair on it's tail
IT'S A SQUART!! LOL...MOM WAS A Squirrel and dad was a rat:) lol...