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Our squirrel was back today. I know, I know, it’s just a squirrel. Who cares? But there was some doubt about my report of its coloring the last time I mentioned it, and this time I got a picture of our little friend — which is harder than it sounds. They’re quick little things. Quicker than the autofocus on my camera, anyway.

So, anyway, here it is, nature red in tooth and claw. Domino was fascinated for a while until the squirrel did something that scared her off. I can’t imagine what, since it was hopping from tree to tree the whole time and never got closer to her than ten feet. But something happened, and she made a dash around the side yard. In any case, I assume that our resident squirrel experts can tell me what kind of squirrel this is now that I have a picture? Or maybe embarrass me by telling me that it’s actually a chipmunk or something?

This soothing nature break has been brought to you by Emerald Nuts, the favorite of nut-hoarding squirrels everywhere. Frenetic political blogging will resume shortly.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we need readers to show up for us big time—again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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