Did Benjamin Franklin write an epitaph for a squirrel?
Yes. In 1772, one of the most famous men of his century sat down in London, with the whole heavy world on his desk, and wrote a proper, formal epitaph for a squirrel he had never met, because a child he loved was sad. In this episode of Our Next Collar, Mungo returns to tell the honest story: the ocean crossing in a box, the wired castle, and the afternoon a great man stopped to be kind to the smallest thing.
History remembers the famous. Their pets remember the person. On Our Next Collar, a brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee reaches the pets of history. One of them tells what they really saw. Tonight, the series' first squirrel, a small creature who saw only the edge of an enormous life, and is honest about exactly which piece he saw. True, surprising, and funnier than history has any right to be. Great for curious kids and the grown-ups listening with them.
This episode is fully scripted and has passed the Talking With Pets accuracy review. The recording is in production. The audio player and the full transcript will appear right here the day the episode goes live. Join the founding list below and we will write to you when it does.
From the episode
Roxie: What did he do?
Mungo: Georgiana wrote to him. To tell him her squirrel was dead. A small sadness, in the middle of a great man's enormous life. He had every reason to send back two kind lines and move on.
Mungo: Instead he sat down, this famous man, in London, with the whole heavy world on his desk, and he wrote me a proper epitaph. A real one. The kind you'd carve for a person you honored. For me. A squirrel he had never even met.
Prince MoRee: (reading the letter's gentle opening) âI lament with you most sincerely the unfortunate End of poor Mungo: Few Squirrels were better accomplish'd; for he had had a good Education, had travell'd far, and seen much of the World.â
Mungo: (quietly) Travelled far. He noticed I'd come a long way to get there.
Mungo, Georgiana Shipley, the crossing of the Atlantic, the loose cage in 1772, and Franklin's letter of 26 September with its epitaph are all real. The telling is ours.
Sources and further reading
- Benjamin Franklin to Georgiana Shipley, 26 September 1772: the consolation letter, the prose opening (âFew Squirrels were better accomplish'dâ), the formal epitaph (âAlas! poor Mungo!â), and the âHere Skuggâ rhyme, all quoted verbatim in the episode. Founders Online, National Archives, document 01-19-02-0202. founders.archives.gov
- Mungo as Georgiana Shipley's pet: sent by Deborah Franklin as a gift to the Shipley family (the Bishop of St Asaph); killed by a dog, named Ranger in the epitaph, in 1772. Same letter and its editorial notes, Founders Online. founders.archives.gov
- âSkuggâ as the common English nickname for any squirrel, per Franklin's own note in the letter. Founders Online. founders.archives.gov
- Franklin's fame as Mungo would have overheard it: the 1752 kite experiment and the lightning rod, and the reorganized colonial post. The Franklin Institute, Benjamin Franklin resources. fi.edu
- Events after Mungo's death, told in the episode as hearsay: American independence (1776), Franklin's arrival in France (December 1776), and the French alliance (1778). National Archives, founding-era records. archives.gov
All historical claims above were checked in the Talking With Pets accuracy review, most recently the full editorial pass of July 2026.
Did Benjamin Franklin write an epitaph for a squirrel?
Yes. In September 1772, Franklin, then in London, wrote a consolation letter to Georgiana Shipley after her pet squirrel Mungo was killed by a dog. The letter contains a full, formal epitaph beginning "Alas! poor Mungo!" and a short rhyme, "Here Skugg lies snug, as a bug, in a rug." Source: Founders Online, National Archives, document 01-19-02-0202.
Was Mungo Benjamin Franklin's pet?
No, and the episode is careful about this. Mungo was a North American grey squirrel that Deborah Franklin sent from Philadelphia as a gift to Georgiana Shipley, the young daughter of Franklin's English friends. Mungo lived in her household in England and died in 1772. Franklin was the kind family friend, not the owner. Source: Founders Online.
Where does "snug as a bug in a rug" come from?
One of the most famous early uses is Franklin's 1772 letter about Mungo: "Here Skugg lies snug, as a bug, in a rug." Skugg was the everyday English nickname for any squirrel, the way every cat was called Puss. Franklin gave the sad child both the grand epitaph and the cozy little rhyme. Source: Founders Online.
Did Mungo see the American Revolution?
No, and the episode says so plainly. Mungo died in 1772, before independence was declared and before Franklin sailed to France in 1776. The episode tells those later events honestly as things Mungo only heard about, a small lesson in what a witness can and cannot claim.
What is Our Next Collar, and is it good for kids?
Our Next Collar is an educational history podcast for curious kids ages 6 to 10 and the grown-ups listening with them. A brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee reaches the pets of history, and one of them tells the true story of the person they knew. Every episode lists its sources and says plainly which parts are real and which are ours, which makes it a quiet lesson in how to weigh sources. It is a podcast from Talking With Pets.
Our Next Collar · the true stories only the animals saw.
Chaco, Roxie, Moose, Prince MoRee, and Armando are getting the pilot ready. Join the founding list and we will write to you when the first episodes go live. Listen with someone you like.