critters

last night our roommate and I had to leave for Bible class before Ty got home from work.  When we got home from class at 9:30 pm, the girls all came running out and exclaimed that Ty got them a surprise and it was “so awesome”.  We were already scared of what it may be, and then they added, “but you have to be careful – they have rabies.”  Excellent.

It was these little guys…

Baby squirrels; none of which appeared to have rabies.  Ty said they fell out of a tree he had cut down at work, and their mom “died”, their dad “abandoned them” and one of their siblings met an untimely death by one of his co-workers.  I am skeptical of the first two scenarios, but glad these two didn’t meet the ill fate of their sibling.  Still, I was not excited to care for these fellas at this time in my crazy life!  Looking online they didn’t seem to be in dehydrated condition yet.  We gave them some water.  There were many pictures out there of baby squirrels fed kitten or puppy formula (widely available) vs. baby squirrels fed the not-widely-available stuff they actually need… the difference was enough to load them up this morning and take them to someone qualified and equipped to ensure their survival.

Marilyn got to help me take them to their new friends…

After we took the critters in, we went through their brief nature walk and learned about habitat and what wild animals need to survive and I explained that they needed to live in the wild and PAWS would help them get healthy so they could go back to their natural habitat.

 

Oh, and did I mention the squirrels were loaded with fleas?  Yeah, I couldn’t stop itching last night after we rigged up a Ziploc bag full of warm water to warm them up and then situated them safely in the chicken coop under a heat lamp (protected from the chickens).  I had to put my clothes straight in the washer and get in the shower and wash the creepy crawlies off me!  Sick! 

So the little fellas are on their way to rehabilitation.  We went to this PAWS location in Lynwood which has a wildlife center.  The girls are excited because they will send us a postcard letting us know the outcome of our little friends.  Since they were healthy, we hope to get a postcard stating they were successfully relocated into the wild!

 

Tangent: This all reminds me of my dad bringing home a baby raccoon when I was little.  My mom and I had to feed it and when it eventually seemed to want to kill us, we finally told him he had to feed it himself or we were giving it to someone who knew what to do with it.  At that time there was a little rescue facility in our hometown, which I am sure he liked better than we skittish people who didn’t know what we were doing.  Though my dad did have a pet adult raccoon when he was young.

What kinds of wild critters have y’all raised or rescued?