Tommy Tucker was an orphaned squirrel in Washington, DC, when Zaidee Bullis adopted him and for some unknown reason, Bullis sewed custom-made doll dresses for him to model. In 1944, photographer Nina Leen was working on photo assignments for LIFE and as she had prior experience with animals, the magazine asked her to photograph little Tommy Tucker. Leen styled Tommy the squirrel in drag for a LIFE magazine feature and although Tommy occasionally bit his her, he otherwise went along and wore the outfits, quite well, as you can see. Leen’s keen knack for shooting animals is the real hidden talent in this work and as you might imagine, it’s pretty tough to get animals to cooperate, let wear costumes. There’s an exhibit of her work that is now on view at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York City through May 16.
