I love the Snow Maiden. One of my daughter's baby-nicknames was 'Snegurochka' because of how much she loved playing in the snow.

Are the squirrels a specific part of her legend? I've seen a number of pictures of her that have them - that same species, red, with long ears.

Squirrels are kind of scary! Columbus, Ohio, where I lived for ten years, has zillions of gray squirrels: very cute, but large, bold, and destructive. A band of them mugged me for my sandwich one time, as I sat on a bench to eat it - just came right up and took it away from me. I just let them; wasn't going to fight them for it! ^^