My Totem (power) animal

Recently I went to a class on animal totems and how to get in touch with your power animal( the 'top dog' so to speak). I am 1/4 native Mohawk and have always felt a closeness to that part of myself, although I dont' look like I even have a drop in me :( So to have animals be part of my spiritual life feels natural. I have always felt a closeness to animals, more so then I have with people. And I have always loved squirrels (could you guess from my name here?). I mean, I really love them. I feed them and I name them. I have many who come on my back porch. They all have distinct personalities and I can tell who's who by just a glance. The seem to like me in return and I refuse to think it has anything to do with the fact that I have become the soup kitchen for the wayward squirrels of the neighborhood. I have my favorites. Like this handsome devil named Tyson. He got his name because he was in some kind of fight and part of his ear is now missing.
But there is Sugar Sweets too. I will have to look for her pics in my pc, I have TONS.I will post all about her on here sometime I'm sure.She was my 1st squirrel friend. They are all my friends. Yes that sounds cheesy and I don't care. I know how it makes me sound and I'm ok with that. I have a bond with them. So when I took the course on animal totems I knew already that my main animal totem was the squirrel. I never really put any thought as to why and what they meant to me. I just knew they had a special place. We all have our favorites. It's believed that the reason is much deeper than most people believe. There are many things that draw people to their power animal. The characteristics that are associated with squirrels in animal totem work are :

Gathering, Activity, Preparedness

The gathering power of Squirrel is a great gift.
It teaches us balance within the circle of gathering and giving out.
They remind us that in our quest for our goals,
it is vital to make time for play and socializing.

Squirrel teaches us to conserve our energy for times of need.
If your totem is Squirrel or Squirrel has recently entered your life,
lighten your load of things that are unnecessary –
things that you have gathered in the past and may be cluttering your life –
thoughts, worries, and stresses.

Squirrel is also the totem of action.
Ask yourself are you too active, not active enough, afraid of enough,
hung up on accumulating and collecting.
Squirrel people tend to be a little erratic – trying to do many things at once.
Take the time to stop and listen to your inner self – and don’t forget to play!

So for me its alot of what I am and what I need to be. I need to be more squirrel like in many ways and learn to let my inner squirrel out. This fits me more than you know. I'm a pack rat and have little ( or big ) piles of things everywhere. But I know where everything is. I save everything in case I ever need it. As easily as I hold onto things I hold on to emotions too and I have been known to hold a grudge. I have a hard time letting things go. Im skittish and spazzy in my thoughts and in my younger years I was a bit squirrely and a bit aggressive. Ever see squirrels fight?? And inspite of my holding on to everything I am NEVER prepared for anything. I could go on but I'm sure you get the point. So my power animal, my main totem animal, is the squirrel. I would like to have a kick ass one like a wolf or a horse or something else considered more powerful and majestic to tell you about. But it is what it is and I'm more than happy with my squirrels. On the flip side of animal totems there are shadow totems as well. More on that another time if anyone is interested.
I think you can learn alot about yourself by finding your power animal. Is there a animal you are drawn to? One that you feel a strong connection to? If so look into it, see what you find out about yourself. Here are a few links to get you started.

http://www.linsdomain.com/totems.htm If you go to the bottom of the page there are tons of animals to choose from.( Also its where I got the info about squirrels I posted above)
http://www.sayahda.com/cyc4.html TONS of info here!
http://www.whats-your-sign.com/animal-totems.html If you check out only one page let it be this one!
http://www.spiritofangels.com/poweranimals.html

If you are interested in more info and don't know where to look just let me know and I will find out everything I can and fill you in.

Now go find your inner animal!