Life in Squirreldom

And Then There Were Four

I got another squirrel on Sunday. It was really windy all day, so I wasn't surprised when I got the call. Her nest had been blown from a 30-foot palm tree. She was brought in the Center with her bigger brother, but unfortunately he had too many serious injuries for us to be able to save him. She, on the other hand, seems to have a real fighting spirit and she's doing very well now. (However, I'm always more than happy to accept any good thoughts headed our way!)

Here's a picture of the four of them right after a feeding. She's the one on the right.

And here's a closer look at the two on the left, just because... :)

The new girl came in at about 52 grams, so she's a little younger than the other three, but close enough to be able to raise them together. She was very cold and thin and dehydrated and, like most we get, riddled with fleas. But we got her warmed up and hydrated and now she's on formula and eating really well.

We call squirrels that look like her a "dirty face" because they have very dark markings around their nose and mouth. You can get a sense of the difference in this pic.

Here's another photo of the four of them. That's her jammed in the middle... sometimes I wonder how they don't end up smothering each other!

In case you're wondering about the fuzzy things in the pictures, people donate their used furs to us and we cut up pieces so that babies can feel like they're sleeping near their mother.

You might also notice in that photo that she has another interesting characteristic. Her tail is shorter than it should be. It's like the tip has been cut off at some point. I can't imagine this was a result of the fall, especially since it wasn't bleeding when she came in. It's possible it was a birth defect. So far it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all. And I've got a couple of backyard squirrels that only have about half their tails, so it's not something that will impair her as an adult.

Here are a few more pics from the last few days.

And one last bonus pic. I managed to get a nice shot of one of my backyard Fox squirrels. I didn't raise her (I know because I've never released Foxes here). I just love her coat... that red colour is so striking. But looking at how fat and furry she is, it's hard to believe that she and my little skinny guys are the same type of animal!

Squirrel Tales

The Animal Care Coordinator at the WCSV sent out a note today announcing that the first baby of the season had been brought in. Not a squirrel—it was a fledgling Anna's hummingbird. But it's definitely a harbinger of things to come... soon.

Of course, I know lots of squirrel lovers from my work at the Center. But I'm always thrilled when I find out that my non-rehabber friends also enjoy having the little critters around. Two of my colleagues from an online writing group have shared their squirrel appreciation with me (and their gratitude for the work we do for them), so I'm passing on their stories.

Jenny Cromie is a Michigan-based freelance writer who specializes in business topics and she also writes a blog called The Golden Pencil, which is a really valuable resource for other freelancers (like me!).

She tells me that last year she had two or three squirrels who would routinely jump on the roof of her apartment building and then jump onto her third-story deck to eat all (and she stresses "all" :) of the birdseed she was leaving out for the cardinals, chickadees, and all the other birds looking for food. (Sadly she hasn't seen any of them this year.) She sent me a couple of photos of one of her visitors—a lovely Fox squirrel from the looks of it.

Turns out, she's not the only one in her family who enjoys the squirrels either.

"The cat in the picture is my 14-year-old Tenbo," she says. "He was fascinated by the squirrel at first, and then so ho-hum about the daily visitor that he finally just watched out the window without trying to scare him away. Even when Tenbo tried to charge the window, the squirrel barely flinched and just kept on eating. :-)"

Sounds about right...

Carole Moore is also a writer who loves squirrels. She shared the most lovely story with me.

"I have to tell you about the little squirrel we had in our back yard one day. A cat got hold of it, but had not managed to hurt it yet, and I was able to get the cat to drop him. He immediately scampered back up a tree where his mama was fussing and the two jumped onto the roof of our two-story house.

A couple of hours later I walked back on to the deck and there was the mama squirrel and baby on the roof. The mama chittered at the baby, then jumped to the big oak tree. Then she turned around and chittered some more. He did everything but shake his head and back up. She hopped back over to the roof, then jumped to the oak again, turned around and chittered at him (I don't know what it is really called, but I knew she was trying to get him to jump to the oak). He again refused.

I sat and watched this little drama for about an hour. My husband came home and we both went back on the deck. The mama would demonstrate and the baby would not follow her. Finally, to our delight, she 'talked' the baby into jumping. He took the leap, grabbed the oak, and she led him through the trees and out of the yard, presumably to a cat-free backyard or the woods.

It was so obvious to us that she was prompting him to jump. I thought she was a really good mama."

I most definitely agree!

Thanks for sharing, Jenny and Carole!

Foxy Finds a Family

I said goodbye to my Fox squirrel today. She gained about 15g while she was here, and started climbing, so I guess she did okay by me. But June managed to find a volunteer from another wildlife center who had taken in two small male Foxes in May, still with their eyes closed, and now my little one will be joining them.

Even though I only had her for a few days, I'm going to miss her. No matter how hard we try, you can't help but become attached to a living creature that depends on you for its very life (and I think anyone who could stay completely detached wouldn't be likely to sign up for this gig!). But we always have to consider what's best for our furry friends and there's no doubt that she'll be a lot happier with two big brothers showing her the ropes.

I didn't have a chance to get many pics of Foxy because, after I would feed her, she would usually immediately crawl to the back of the cage and snuggle in with the t-shirts. But here are a couple of final shots I managed to get to remember her by. (Check out that gorgeous tail!)

Fare well, Foxy. And when you're ready... GO WILD! :)

Foxy Follow-Up

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I had seen a Fox squirrel in my backyard in the morning. Well, I saw him/her there again today and I managed to get a quick pic before it scurried off.

Even in the shadows, you can make out the distinctive red underside. They're really quite lovely. I hope s/he sticks around a while...

Foxy Lady

Since we thought that squirrel season was over for the time being (ha!), I had signed up to start working a regular shift at the Center again. So I happened to be there on Friday morning when we got yet another squirrel in that was quite a bit smaller (129g) than should have been out there by this time of the year. And so, of course, I brought her home with me...

The most obvious difference between a Fox and an Eastern is their colouring. The Eastern Grey is, well, grey (or sometimes black), and the Fox has a reddish coat, as you can see in these pics. It's most obvious in her paws, her tail, and on her belly, which you can only see a bit of in the last one, which was taken as a still shot from a video (which is why the quality isn't very good):

They also grow to be quite a bit bigger than Easterns so, at only 129g, she has a fair bit of growing to do before she can go back outside. However, you can't raise the two species together, so I have to keep her in a separate cage while she's here. June, our squirrel coordinator, is working to find someone else who has some Foxes more or less the same size that can take her. It's never good to raise a single squirrel, because they're more likely to imprint on (become too attached to) the rehabber, which will make them too trusting of humans in general—something we don't want in wild animals!

So I don't know how long I'll have her. It's definitely going to be a challenge finding another set to match her up with. In the meantime, I get to enjoy her company. Here's a video of me feeding her. Don't ask me what she's doing with her legs. I had no idea that squirrels could dance a jig! (Although I guess I should have figured that with all that red hair, she must be Irish... :)

One last funny thing... I brought this little girl home on Friday afternoon. On Saturday morning, when I looked out in my backyard, a Fox squirrel was eating the food I'd put out for my recently released set! I've seen Foxes once or twice back there over the years, but they never stick around. I figure they see all the Easterns and think, yep, time to move on. But how funny that there was one there right when I took in this one!