I have a little guy (I’ve named him/her Murrfy) that I’ve been caring for, going on 3 weeks now. Rescued him from a cat; his mama is nowhere to be found. I think she came to a bad end, poor thing. Murrfy’s a scrappy little guy, fended off a cat 10 times his size, but he was awfully skinny when found. He didn’t have any obvious wounds, and has been taking formula very well; I’m giving him the goat’s milk+full fat yogurt+heavy whipping cream blended recipe I found on TSB. He’s also begun to nibble on broccoli and KayTee FortiDiet Pro Health rodent chow, which is the only rodent chow I’ve been able to find. I want to release him as soon as possible, but don’t have any experience in rehabilitating and releasing wildlife. I’ve searched high and low for a wildlife rehabilitator and there isn’t a single one to be found anywhere near. The folks I found are in the northern part of my state and they say the State Department of Game and Fish doesn’t want animals from the southern part to be taken into the northern part for fear of potential contamination of subspecies populations; so, they can’t take him. I have to release him locally. While he is cute and wonderful, I can’t keep him long-term and I’m afraid that the longer I handle him, the less able he will be to survive in the wild on his own. Plus, he is still so small. I’m not sure how old he is (6 or 7 weeks maybe?), but he seems just too small to release and I don’t know how I can possibly teach him to forage. One lady I spoke to told me that this species is pretty resilient, and that if I just release him into an environment where there’s food, he’ll figure it out and be fine. Is that so? How long should I keep him? How best should I handle him so that he can be released later? I’d really appreciate any advice you can give, and Millions of Thanks for the loads of helpful information I’ve already borrowed! I’ll try to attach some pics.