introduction

[Niko's mommy]

Hello to all my fellow squirrlies ,
i have been raising a squirrel since last fall ,september 24, as you might have guessed i named him Niko..
i managed to fumble through the first 5 or 6 weeks but managed to keep the guy alive.
when we first found him, my husband says i need your hand. figuring he need help with something, i told him i gave him my hand 15 years ago.. so he stands there for a few minutes and says give me your hand .. im like fine and hold out my hand.. in it he placed this bug infested nearly dead cool to the touch furball.. it had 1 eye slightly open and the other was still closed. i ask him what am i supposed to do with it.. the smart person i am , haha.. immediately cleaned him in warm water with a mild soap to rid the bugs. wrapped him in a dry towel and kept him close to my body to keep him warm while i researched the basics.. first warm, then hydrate then and only then feed..
the first night was nearly tragic.. i put him in my cat carrier with a newer heating pad(with an auto off) on low of course with a couple towels.. i stayed up as long as i could to keep turning it back on. but when i got up in the morning it had been at least several hours. checked him he was cold.. thought for sure he was dead.. but amazingly he wasnt. next i searched for my old heating pad but couldnt find it.. so i just kept at it.. went out to get pedialite, and find puppy formula.. it was touch and go the first week or so, but i didnt kill him.. as the weeks went on he became more active . he grew and thrived on the formula and rice cereal..
i knew at some point i would need to release him back out side so i tried to take him out as often as weather would permit.. took some time but he finally came out of the carrier and into the open.. everything i did was pretty rudimentary, as i dont have a lot of expendable income.but it followed all the recommendations .one of the funniest things is that for nesting he would go to the kleenex take only one at a time and add it to his nest.. when he would no longer go in the cage without a fight he built a nest on top of my entertainment center where it was warm above the cable and game boxes.. the nest consisted of a stuffed puppy a basket and kleenex..
the first time he spent the entire day outside was thanksgiving.. it wasnt a pretty day but i needed to be sure he acclimated to the outdoors. couple of larger squirrels(whole story behind these two) chased after him and i lost him.. found him huddled on top of a telephone post tried all day to coax him down.. finally at night fall did he come down ..
a little after christmas it was time to let him out on a daily basis.. every morning he would come wake me up to let him out and every night he would come back in.. it wasnt long before he decided he was going to nest in a box in the garage.. but still being so small we didnt want him to freeze so we moved the box out of the garage to the basement.. it worked for awhile but then he decided he was going to nest again in the garage but this time in the corner above the door.. it was still too cold. so we had to make sure he couldnt get in the garage .. late march it was time to let him have his way.. he of course chewed through the wires for the door opener but we took it in stride and repaired them.. he had been in the garage ever since. when the weather started getting into the 80's i put a small fan near his corner.. but the weekend of june 17th was going into the upper 90's . i have not seen him since.. on the up side it wasnt just him the seemed to disappear .. normally we have about a dozen squirrels in the yard .. that day there was one.. and it wasn't Niko..i was all over the internet trying to figure out what happened and even emailed the squirrel project and others to see if they had any ideas.. and found this site.. we are of course heart broken not to see him and play with him every day as he made a point of coming to say hi. always mindful of my bare arms and careful not to dig into my skin.. and they say squirrels dont have feelings.. im still looking for him every day.. in hopes that he will be back.. in the meantime i will continue to care for the ones that are here.. even if they wont let me pet and play with them.. so in a sense im here posting this very long post to deal with my grief and share my story.. and of course pictures of my boy Niko.. have a great day!:serene

[island rehabber]

Niko's Mommy, let me first welcome you to The Squirrel Board. Glad you found us, because you are most certainly "one of us" :grin3.
For a first-time squirrel mom you really did well....my first squirrel was weaned at 7 weeks old because I had no clue that he needed formula at that age :shakehead. Thank goodness both mine AND your Niko survived despite us....

Niko may not actually be gone for good. First off, male squirrels do something called 'dispersal': they leave the territories they were born into, because nature wants them to spread their seed in other neighborhoods, not always amongst their cousins and siblings :grin2. Most often, released males will take off while females will make a nest in the first tree to the left of their original home, or outdoor release cage.
Secondly, it is mating season from now until mid July in the northeast, and Niko may very well be partying with the best of them. Boys will be boys. Don't be surprised if you see him again come late September or October. He knows where the nuts are. :grin2
Again, welcome to TSB! :Welcome

[HRT4SQRLS]

:wave123 Niko's Mommy
:Welcome to TheSquirrelBoard

I enjoyed reading your story about Niko. He is a real beauty. Sometimes they survive in spite of us. :rotfl
It wouldn't surprise me at all if Niko comes back home at some point. They have been known to return weeks, months or even a year later so don't count Niko out. It's also possible that he might have left and found new territory. I just found out about a Cypress Fox Squirrel that relocated over 3 miles away from home. Because he was unique, someone spotted an area where CFS were concentrated and sure enough, this person found his friend there. That story made me very happy to know that they will relocate that far. It gives me hope for those that leave and never return.

It's always sad to let them go but you did right by your boy by giving him the option of freedom. No matter how much they love their mom, most will choose freedom in the trees.

[Snowy]

Welcome Niko's Mommy! Niko is quite the cutie pie!

Sorry to hear Niko is making you worry. They are really good at that!!

I enjoyed reading your post and cute story about the kleenex. Somewhere (probably here) I read about a pet squirrel that would grab one at a time and stuff each of them in his human mom's shirt (cleavage). Perfect spot for a nest!

Hope Niko comes home for a visit soon to ease your mind.

[Bravo]

Thank you for the story, NM, and welcome... as others have said, there's every reason to believe that Niko is on an extended walkabout. Time and again I've read here how squirrels come back after days, weeks and months, after ranging out far and wide. hoping the same for him. :)