Lost pet flier lists squirrely information

If you have been trying to find Cracker the squirrel, who also responds to the name Peanut, you can stop now.

There's no Cracker, no Peanut, no squirrel.

The fliers that recently appeared on a slew of South Tampa utility poles feature a photo of a cute squirrel with a short narrative explaining its hobbies: "playing on trees and lying on fluffy couches." The fliers include a phone number.

The number isn't one for a heartsick owner of a photogenic rodent. It's the number to Paradise Lakes Resort in Lutz, which advertises itself as "America's premier clothing optional resort."

Kim Hunter first saw the squirrel ad across the street from her San Luis Street home in South Tampa about a week ago when her two daughters, ages 7 and 9, pointed it out.

The kids were captivated. For days, they would call out "Cracker" or "Peanut" to each squirrel they saw.

"None of them came to us. They went the other way," Hunter said with a laugh.

She never called the number and didn't know there was a connection to Paradise Lakes Resort. She says she doesn't expect the resort to get much new business because of the flier.

"This is such a family friendly neighborhood," Hunter said. "It's not a place where I would market to get potential clients."

Officials with Paradise Lakes Resort say they're not connected to the fliers.

"We're a resort," said Stephanie Gibson, general manager at Paradise. "The resort doesn't have a pet squirrel named Peanut."

She hopes it's a typo, that someone wrote down a wrong number.

"I really don't know how to take it," Gibson said. "I've never been faced with this before. If it was a prank, maybe someone has too much time on their hands."

No one has called Paradise with news of a lost squirrel, she said.

Trude Hellesen, a mother of three children who lives on San Luis Street, stopped her car when she saw the flier.

"I had to read this," Hellesen said. "It was different because it was a squirrel."