Saturday, April 11, 2009

The first spring baby!

Last weekend, it freaking snowed. IT'S APRIL!



That's my little house. It looks kind of like a Thomas Kincaid painting...except with no joyful colors because it's night. Anyway, during that same weekend, I got one of these little guys on my weekly wildlife pickup at the Humane Society. He was left all alone in the snow!



It's a squirrel pup! This one was three weeks old. You can tell by sticking your finger in the mouth and feeling for the teeth. Bottom teeth come in at three weeks, top teeth come in at four, and the eyes open at five. They won't bite--baby squirrels are so sweet. They make the cutest squeaks when they know they're going to be fed, and they grab onto the syringe with their bitty paws and suck so hard their tongues look like tiny funnels. I should've taken a picture of that.

This little guy just wanted to snuggle into my hands and stay warm forever. Here he is trying to figure out how to burrow more deeply and being thwarted.



I am not the caretaker for juvenile squirrels--they have to be fed too frequently and there's no way I could swing that on my schedule--so I just overnighted this guy with some warm Pedialyte until I could transport him to another rehabilitator. The squirrel lady is someone I really enjoy, and she lives down in Beaver Lake. To save me a drive, I always sneak the squirrels to work in my bag and we do the hand-off in my parking lot! It's a mighty fine arrangement, I say.

Here's one more with a good view of his tail. They don't fur out until...gosh, at least a couple of months.



"It's cold out here! Feed me or put me back, woman!"

3 comments:

  1. AH! You make me so proud. As I have been since you were a l'il baby girl!!!!How wonderful that you give your time to animals who need rescue! God Bless!!!
    Auntie G

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  2. Absolutely adorable... can I hold it?

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  3. Squirrels are too cute. I wish we had more of them around here. :(

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