We all know squirrels--adorable, ubiquitous, and kind of whimsical in how they scamper busily around us with such an earnest expression in their eyes. But no one knows them like photographer Nancy Rose, who's channeled the animals' natural curiosity into a series of award-winning books featuring domestic vignettes for which the word "quirky" might have been invented. Her art: She constructs meticulously detailed props using clay, cardboard, and other craft supplies, then arranges them on her deck. Lured by hidden peanuts, neighborhood squirrels come to investigate and are captured on camera in amusingly humanlike poses. The photos are impossibly cute, and the effect is pure charm. Here is a squirrel pushing a teeny-tiny baby carriage. A squirrel building a sandcastle at the beach. Squirrels doing the laundry, taking a bath, and, for February, a squirrel couple enjoying a candlelit dinner.

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