Baby Squirrels and Mean Crows

On my way home yesterday from running around to the cable company, grocery shopping, and other errands (with a wicked 'crappy me feeling head cold' that also feels flu like -- all I wanted to do was be horizontal -- but duty calls! LOL) I'm driving home and I see this woman on the side of the road with a box and she's kind of playing with the lid. "uh, oh," I say to myself, "keep going Denise, mind your own business, let her deal with it" "I bet it's kittens, she looks like she's not sure what to do" ....you guessed it....I pulled over. I walk up to her and what she has is a baby squirrel. She said that she saw it in the road as she drove by, almost got home, and had to turn around to try and help it...crows kept pecking at it, a form of torture, I imagine.

His feet were too big for his body and floppy, very frog like, very cute

So, instead of letting her take care of things (she had a look of bewilderment on her face) I told her I would take it to the nearby vet to see if they will take into their care. I knew they wouldn't. I haven't found a vet in a 10 mile radius yet that will. They do direct me to wildlife rehabilitaters. And that is what happened. I called 4 different people, two got back to me. The first one I made arrangements with to bring the little guy to her in the morning since she works 10 minutes from me but lives a half hour away. I thought I'd have to be up feeding him all night because that's the first words out of two people's mouths when I told them I have a baby in my care. Apparently, that is wrong, wrong, wrong. All I had to do was make sure he stayed warm and didn't get a chill. They need a certain formula, I was told, and since I didn't have it, I shouldn't give him anything. A heating pad is great for this if you have one...I don't. But, I have a hot water bottle. It works great, you just have to change the water every few hours. Fortunately for the little guy, my Weezie wakes me up regularly during the night and last night she didn't disappoint...3 times. (when she dies, I will get so much needed sleep)

This morning I found out that you can also use a heat pack. This is what the rehabilitator used for him today, she said they last 12 hours and work great.

I had just gotten a mink hat from a clean out I did and I had told my client that I did the work for that I would send it to the Humane Society because they use furs for rehabilitating animals. She loved the idea. Well, I called her last night and told her it went to a baby squirrel instead.

I'm telling you, that baby was thanking me for that good warm furry stuff that so closely resembles the feel of momma -- instead of some towel that couldn't possibly come close to being mom. He was so cute, burrowing in, getting all snuggly. He was so comfy this morning and not moving, that I had to jostle him a little to make sure he wasn't dying on me. He wasn't, and when I held him he tried to wrestle himself out of my hand and he was screeching for his momma and some food -- or to be saved from this big human creature!

When Hanzie heard all this screeching, he got very excited...Miniature Schnauzers were bred for catching rats, and my Hanzie has a particular drive for screeching things. (when I move my refrigerator for example, it has a weird squeak and he goes balistic trying to get whatever he thinks is under there.) So he was really interested in this little critter making those wonderful noises, he looked at me wide eyed and his jaws quivered with desire, 'animal instinct I need to catch it and kill it' desire. He was focused and jumping on my legs when in the house. But this morning, when Baby started yelling outside, Hanz ran backward, I don't know if he was scared (look at that face!) or going to take a running jump to get it. He probably was waiting for it to hit the ground so he could chase it. I have a lot of squirrels that come to the back yard and climb my fence, and tease Hanz, he falls for it every time.

nothing like a picture to show you how bad your lawn is. LOL