Squirrel Daycare

I received an urgent call from a neighbor about a nest of baby squirrels found in the remains of a chopped down tree. My advice: leave the babies covered and warm in the hopes of mommas return. (though secretly, I was hoping for the chance to raise a lot of baby squirrels;) The next day I got another call that they were still there – what to do? “I guess I can take them” I said to the lady who found them (hee hee).

They were brought to me in a cardboard box with blankets and a water bottle (for a heat source). I brought them home and placed them out in my sunroom. My husband came home and I should mention that he has recently developed a learned aversion to cardboard boxes.

“What do you have now?” (the usual question) I unveiled the contents with a huge grin on my face and much to my surprise, he actually said, “Awww.” This  is code for yes I can keep them – yay!

I am not sure who enjoyed the frequent feedings more – the babies or me:

It was fun to watch them grow from little furry blobs into little feisty, agile creatures. I WISH I had a video clip of the first time one jumped from my hand clear onto my shoulder. My reaction was what really made the humor come through – I little scream followed by lots of giggling:)

At this point I decided it was time for the toddlers to have their own bedroom. Oddly enough, they didn’t like their bedsets as much as I did.

It was time for them to move into a more grown up facility of a birdcage so they could start using their little muscles to jump, climb and play.

They grow up so fast. Now fully weaned onto a seed and nut diet, it was time to let them experience the wild for themselves. I took them deep into the protected woodland behind my house (hopefully far enough away from my orange predator Schmooshie).

I should mention that just prior to this I attempted to take them out one at a time for an individual portrait photograph in my garage. This proved to be a very bad idea. One got loose and ran behind the workbench in my garage ……….oops.

So, I took the remaining three squirrels in their cage deep into the woods. I released them and scattered seeds and nuts around the area to give them a head start (peanuts were their favorite.) I took as may pictures of their departure as I could get before returning to the garage to retrieve the last one.

If a squirrel rodeo does not exist yet on you tube – I could have been the first. If only someone else was there to video-tape the nonsense. Envision a good ten minutes of  moving lawn mowers, laying facedown under the workbench (yuck – who knew how much debris could collect under there!) making strategic piles of nuts and fruit, and various other ridiculous schemes.

My efforts failed and I left the garage open in the hopes the little guy would just find his own way out. I’m pretty sure he did since I haven’t seen any “remnants’ of digested fruits and nuts.

At least I know there will be no risk of my squirrels seeking out human affection anytime soon;)