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April 21, 2011

Baby Gym Rat 2?


I couldn't have called this Baby Tree Rat, after my first post...

Ok, so Audrey (the upstairs neighbors Great Dane) is in the front yard being slightly distracted by me, Michael has gone over to check out the baby squirrel two doors down...

All of a sudden I hear Michael yelling something. My attention was still on Audrey trying to keep her occupied, so the words he uttered were not really that clear. He yells a bit louder and I hear "Get a Box"!!! and my mind is saying "NO he IS NOT" bringing a critter back to the house.  I see him trotting down the sidewalk with a small animal on his shoulder, through my eyes, but this is all my mind sees:


"SQUIRREL!!!" is all my mind hears... Michael has a baby squirrel on his shoulder!!! I go inside to look for a box and Audrey sets off to see what all the fuss is...

Audrey approaches Michael, the squirrel jumps off and then next thing you know, the squirrel is in Audrey's mouth... I can say at least one thing at this point that may make the PETA followers out there feel better, Audrey is one of the sweetest most harmless creatures I have ever met. Her oral grasp on this baby squirrel was more like a mother (dog's) hold on one of it's own pups. She let go as soon as she was told to...

We got the squirrel into a box and covered her with a sweatshirt to try to calm her down. I then went and "googled" (yes I just used that as a verb) "baby squirrel rescue" and found a local wildlife rescue organization Wildlife Response, Inc... I called the local number and left a message... I then searched further and found two people locally that rescue small animals (birds and mammals), called one who referred me to the other (who specializes in squirrels) and attempted to call her several times, receiving nothing but a busy signal...

After a few other tries, we made contact and she suggested I bring the baby to her home a couple of miles away. I arrived and she invited me in to assist her. She first took a look at suggested the baby may be very underweight. She attempted to put her on a scale and the little rascal jumped out and onto her kitchen floor. She thanked me for being there and asked if I could lift up the end of her kitchen island so that she could catch the squirrel, which I did and she did. After finally getting a weight, she confirmed that the baby was about half it's healthy weight. First thing she did was give it an oral antibiotic (in a proper dose) to ward off any infections it may have received from the cat or dog. Next she offered a syringe full of (a special) formula to the baby and checked it's sex. The baby "Shirley" was in fact a female and took every drop of the formula.

Afterwards, Susan (the WRI volunteer) told me what her treatment plans were and assured me she would keep in touch as to Shirley's progress (more for Michael, than me)...

She has, and Shirley is recovering well...

Over and "Out" from Portsmouth, VA

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad the dog was gentle. Nice thing to do. Personally I hate the tree rats after all the damage they've done to my house, but I would probably save a baby in distress, too. Too soft-hearted, I guess.

Peace <3
Jay

Anonymous said...

Nice job! Here's an interesting story for you. Friend of mine was dating a guy who had a pet squirrel. I had to babysit the little bugger.

The squirrel was a nasty little bastard to me, that was until I offered him a peanut in the shell. Then he was my best friend.

BTW, the guy my friend was dating, his phone number spelled out APE-COCK.

Buddy Bear said...

What a funny story! And what a lot of effort for a little squirrel!! My house backs onto a vast wilderness area so in my yard we regularly get bear, deer, racoon, groundhogs, wild turkeys, and the rare bobcat and once, even rarer still, an elk. A little squirrel wouldn't even be on our radar.

BosGuy said...

You are a good man Charlie Brown...

It took me a minute to remember Audrey is your pet and not a child. My initial reaction to her putting the baby squirrel in her mouth was -ick- then it all clicked. Sometimes I'm slow like that.

BosGuy

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