Victor
10-28-2008, 12:25 AM
Hi folks. It has been a while that I have posted. I do visit from time to time but not on as often as I should since our dear special needs squirrel Zipper passed away last December.
A pigeon rehabber who belongs to another forum I belong to called Pigeon Talk posted an experience he and his wife had with a baby squirrel that I thought I would share with all of you here at the SB.
Here it is:
This One's for Victor, Bev & Family!
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Victor & Bev, you're gonna' love this:
Before Lin & I went on our diving vacation to Bonaire this year, we went up to the lakehouse to mow the lawn (maintenance is pretty much the only reason we go up there). While I was getting stuff ready to mow, Lin came running up in a huff to tell me that there was a very young (gray) squirrel that had surprised her as she'd never seen one that small before. She hurried up to me to get me down there to see the little fellow before he got off.
I stopped about six feet from him and could tell he was way too small to be on his own. As I looked down at him, he looked up at me for a moment, walked slowly and sleepily over to my foot and stopped. I bent over and lowered my hand down in front of him and he just climbed right up on. He attempted to nurse on my finger so we immediately took him in to round up something for him to eat. About all we could find was whole-wheat crackers that we could soak in some water. It didn't take too long to get him working on that enthusiastically and he also drank a little water (he seemed a little dehydrated).
He started bogging down after awhile. He looked like he needed something else so I reached in to check him. He immediately crawled up into my hand and when I got him to my chest he curled up to go to sleep. I sat down and covered him with my hand on my chest and he slept that way for at least a half-hour. Then he ate again and slept again, same as before. He didn't like being in the box that we got for him--I guess he was kinda' lonely. Lin went ahead and did the lawn because she'd not had the privilege all summer.
I called a rehabber I knew who did animals other than birds and she speculated that his mother must have gotten killed by a hawk. She wanted us to look for more, which we did but didn't find any. Since he was definitely too small to be on his own and appeared to be homeless, we just took him directly to her late that night. She was very surprised at how tame and just plain loving he'd already become after just a few hours with Lin and I, and declared that we'd never make official rehabbers because we spoil the animals too completely and too quickly.
I told her it was all Lin's fault.
I think we've got pictures on the camera but I haven't had time to load 'em and I'm south of Sacramento right now. I'll get to it eventually.
Pidgey
A pigeon rehabber who belongs to another forum I belong to called Pigeon Talk posted an experience he and his wife had with a baby squirrel that I thought I would share with all of you here at the SB.
Here it is:
This One's for Victor, Bev & Family!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Victor & Bev, you're gonna' love this:
Before Lin & I went on our diving vacation to Bonaire this year, we went up to the lakehouse to mow the lawn (maintenance is pretty much the only reason we go up there). While I was getting stuff ready to mow, Lin came running up in a huff to tell me that there was a very young (gray) squirrel that had surprised her as she'd never seen one that small before. She hurried up to me to get me down there to see the little fellow before he got off.
I stopped about six feet from him and could tell he was way too small to be on his own. As I looked down at him, he looked up at me for a moment, walked slowly and sleepily over to my foot and stopped. I bent over and lowered my hand down in front of him and he just climbed right up on. He attempted to nurse on my finger so we immediately took him in to round up something for him to eat. About all we could find was whole-wheat crackers that we could soak in some water. It didn't take too long to get him working on that enthusiastically and he also drank a little water (he seemed a little dehydrated).
He started bogging down after awhile. He looked like he needed something else so I reached in to check him. He immediately crawled up into my hand and when I got him to my chest he curled up to go to sleep. I sat down and covered him with my hand on my chest and he slept that way for at least a half-hour. Then he ate again and slept again, same as before. He didn't like being in the box that we got for him--I guess he was kinda' lonely. Lin went ahead and did the lawn because she'd not had the privilege all summer.
I called a rehabber I knew who did animals other than birds and she speculated that his mother must have gotten killed by a hawk. She wanted us to look for more, which we did but didn't find any. Since he was definitely too small to be on his own and appeared to be homeless, we just took him directly to her late that night. She was very surprised at how tame and just plain loving he'd already become after just a few hours with Lin and I, and declared that we'd never make official rehabbers because we spoil the animals too completely and too quickly.
I told her it was all Lin's fault.
I think we've got pictures on the camera but I haven't had time to load 'em and I'm south of Sacramento right now. I'll get to it eventually.
Pidgey