My 1000th Post, A Freckles Story

First of all I can't believe I've posted 1000 times. I want to thank all of you Auspet regulars for sharing your stories and offering great advice. I started posting just after we got Duke and he will be five this November. You are a great bunch of people.
Now for the Freckles story.
Yesterday afternoon I was sitting out on the deck while Freckles was exploring the yard. Duke was asleep inside. All of a sudden something grabbed Freckles attention. He was by the back utility door about twenty feet away. At first I saw him just staring at a spot next to the door where there were some old flower pots. He would lower his head, eyes fixed, then back up a bit and stomp one of his front paws. Then he would look back at me. Finally my curiosity got me to go over to see what he had found. It was a baby squirrel about five weeks old. Its body was only about 3 1/2" long with an equally long tail. It was just frozen in place with eyes half shut. I put on a pair of gloves and reached down and picked it up without any problem or resistance.
Taking it inside I placed it in an old ice chest on a towel then I tried to get it to drink using straw to draw up a bit of water up the allowing a drop to release by its mouth. No sucess so I really thought he was a goner.
I went to the store and purchased a can of baby formula and an eye dropper. This time when I pushed the eye dropper a bit into its mouth he grabbed the dropper and drank it dry. After about four dropper fulls he seemed full.
I fed him again at 8 last night then I got up a two this morning for another feeding. This morning I added a little raw egg and peanut butter to the formula and he really lapped that up.
Will take him out to one of our County Nature Centers today where they do animal rehab. They said they would be glad to complete the rescue.
OK. I cuss at those squirrels all the time for eating my tomatoes but that little guy was just too cute and he needed help.
Happy end to the story.
Thanks again for all of your advice over the years.
John

 

Aww!!
Thats so sweet.

Yeah, I cuss the squirlls daily. I left the kitchen window open once, and one climbed in and stole a chunk of bread!!! Right off my counter!

 

that is so sweet!. I like our squirrils because they harvest our pine cones which can be nasty if they fall on our roof

 

Awww, that's so good of Freckles not to eat it! I can guaruntee you that would have been Ranger and Snickers first reaction, lol. The other day while I had them out front, we actually had a squirrel fall from one our oak trees, which is about 20-30 feet off the ground. Poor thing, Ranger was after it in a flash, but the squirrel managed to make it back up the tree in time.

 

Here is a photo Dukesmom took as I was feeding the baby. The naturalist at the center said I had done a good job keeping the little guy alive, including stimulating it with a tissue to get it to eliminate. She said that was important. The rehab people will now take over and release it into a park when it can take care of itself.

 

oh its so cute!

 

Good job! At least he was old enough to have fur. About a month ago, I was in the kitchen talking on the phone when I heard a BANG outside the window, then a strange crying sound. I thought maybe one of the dogs was outside, but they came running into the kitchen to see what was going on!

I went outside with a flashlight, and there was a baby squirrel, no fur, lying on the deck. Poor thing! He must have fell out of a tree! We have a wild animal rescue place here, but they didn't open until 10am the next morning. Their website said to place him in a box with bedding in a warm place and then leave him alone. I was hoping the mommy would come for him so we just watched out the window for a while, but didn't see her. So finally, I went and put him in a box with nice, fluffy tissues, but I didn't close the box and I left it where he fell, just in case mom was coming back.

I took the dogs out on leashes for the rest of the night and the morning. Nala would have eaten him for sure!

I brought him to the rescue in the morning and there was another guy dropping off a baby squirrel that looked about the same age, so at least there were two of them to keep each other warm!