In the early 1940s, LIFE magazine reported that a Mrs. Mark Bullis of Washington, D.C., had adopted a squirrel "before his eyes were open, when his mother died and left him in a tree" in the Bullis's back yard. LIFE then went on to observe that the squirrel, dubbed Tommy Tucker by the Bullis family.
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Tommy Tucker, a famed D.C.-area squirrel who used to go to the grocery store in a tailor-made coat and hat. But luckily, LIFE magazine has opened up its archives to shine a bit of light on the dapper rodent.
Despite Tommy’s male anatomy, his owners dressed Tommy Tucker in drag
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There is a letter from the commander of the Lucky Penny, a B-17 bomber for whom Tommy was the mascot. (“Dear Tommy,” wrote Jimmy Evans, “it sure was good hearing from you again and to learn you have a job, that of sponsoring the next War Bond Drive. . . . Yep Tommy, you sure are tops with us.”)
Tommy Tucker, Washington’s most famous squirrel
Tommy Tucker is at last located
In 1945, The Tommy Tucker Club had some 30,000 members