ParkerBarker
05-05-2009, 04:06 PM
Hello,newbie to the boards,here. I can't believe I am just now finding this board.Glad for it. I have already gained some new knowledge.I need all I can get for our temporary buddy. We found ParkerBarker on the ground in a park.He was being poked at by several kids with sticks,which is how our attention was drawn to the lil guy.He was very tiny and scrawny and bloody,we think,from a fall from the nest. My daughter went to him after the kids had left and the poor thing had no energy to run.He just laid there. We sat with him for some time before my daughter tried to pet or hold it. After a while of it letting us pet it,She picked it up and it curled up in a ball in her hand and fell asleep. We thought it had died because it would not wake up for nothing. I guess it was just exausted. Short while later,the squirrell woke up and scurried up her hoodie and down her back and then ran around her side and found its way into her hoodie pocket AND WOULD NOT GET OUT,LOL.
It kept hanging in her pocket and when she did get it out,it just ran back in.We wound up bringing it home.It slept in a ball in her pocket all the way home.Once home we started the rehabber searching but could get no call backs so we proceeded to hand pick the fleas and wash the blood from its mouth and both nostrils and started the research on care. First thing we did was weigh it in and log it. Poor thing was 2 oz. Fast forward,some weeks and he is now weaned and on solids and being at best guess,a normal squirrel.
Hes taken over my daughters room completely now and has made her closet his tree house. Hes outgrown the cage and so anybody entering her room is subject to being turned into a tree and being climbed all over. We have kept him far away from our pets and tried our best to not domesticate him so he can be released in time. Parker is what we named him since he was found in the park and we added the "Barker" here recently because he and my husband sit in the floor and bark at eachother. I am concerned a bit though,because he seems to be very attached to my daughter and is at the point where when she tells him "bye Parker" before leaving the room,he leaps to her.Does this sound like a problem as far as releasing him,is concerned? She has been working on it by putting him far enough away and stopping him when he looks like he will jump to her,but its not stopping the problem.He only learned to get faster at it. Now we try not to speak when we leave the room and it seems to help a little but hes still on the alert .
Ok,I talked enough. Hello and goodbye.
It kept hanging in her pocket and when she did get it out,it just ran back in.We wound up bringing it home.It slept in a ball in her pocket all the way home.Once home we started the rehabber searching but could get no call backs so we proceeded to hand pick the fleas and wash the blood from its mouth and both nostrils and started the research on care. First thing we did was weigh it in and log it. Poor thing was 2 oz. Fast forward,some weeks and he is now weaned and on solids and being at best guess,a normal squirrel.
Hes taken over my daughters room completely now and has made her closet his tree house. Hes outgrown the cage and so anybody entering her room is subject to being turned into a tree and being climbed all over. We have kept him far away from our pets and tried our best to not domesticate him so he can be released in time. Parker is what we named him since he was found in the park and we added the "Barker" here recently because he and my husband sit in the floor and bark at eachother. I am concerned a bit though,because he seems to be very attached to my daughter and is at the point where when she tells him "bye Parker" before leaving the room,he leaps to her.Does this sound like a problem as far as releasing him,is concerned? She has been working on it by putting him far enough away and stopping him when he looks like he will jump to her,but its not stopping the problem.He only learned to get faster at it. Now we try not to speak when we leave the room and it seems to help a little but hes still on the alert .
Ok,I talked enough. Hello and goodbye.