Nurture and tend to our foundling squirrel until it reaches squirrely independence

One of the few happy distractions we have enjoyed during the very stressful month of September has been the developing antics and growth of our foundling squirrel, whom we christened only last night “Lucky”. Unfortunately Lucky passed away today for reasons completely unknown. He had been scampering and playing and acting his normal squirrel self, eating and evacuating as normal, sleeping as normal, in all ways behaving normally. S. has a carrier that she takes him to work in so she can maintain his feeding schedule. He was alert and active for breakfast, but when she went to administer his noon feeding she found him dead in the bottom of the carrier, curled as if asleep. He shows no signs or distress or seizure or trauma, no blood, foam, bloating, smell, stool or vomit, absolutely nothing to indicate what might have caused him to die and pass so suddenly.

While we know that small animals can experience fatal stresses and can perish in very short amounts of time, and we knew his chances from the beginning were uncertain (hence the two week naming ban) we never the less were feeling more confident every day that Lucky would be growing and maturing into a healthy, friendly, curious squirrel ready to reintroduce into the wild in the spring. We are extremely saddened and mystified by his death.

In any respect, Lucky lived longer and in greater care and comfort than he would have had he not been rescued, and we are grateful that whatever ailment caused his demise seemed to have been without pain or extended suffering. Thanks to everyone who followed and cheered Lucky’s progress from a wrinkled pink foundling to the bushy tailed varmit he was becoming. We will miss him very much.

At least someone is getting a new house. Our little squirrel, so tiny when we picked him up, now has enough energy and size to warrant a cage. We picked one up at Target, along with a small cat carrier so S. can still transport him to work with her, since he is still on a feeding schedule. He likes to jump around his cage and explore, and I am duty bound to report he is peeing and pooping on his own now (seems baby squirrels have to be prompted to do this initially).

As soon as he could see where he was going, it has been a race on unsteady legs for our little squirrel. Everyday he gets about a bit better. Its funny to watch him playing, romping, tumbling about, then fall asleep on his feet like he’s narcoleptic. He is learning he can climb around now. Arms, pillows, pants legs… no place is safe. I think to myself: “he will only get faster!”

Holding up that big head is really a chore for the little guy. He is getting more active everyday, but he can only use his legs for short periods of time. He wobbles and tumbles and flips over all the time. But he is gaining weight, fur, size… and now that he can see where he is going, only a matter of time before he grows in mischief, too.

First the right eye, then the left peeled themselves open on our little foundling squirrel. He still sleeps a lot, but is gaining weight and growing in size. His tail curls over his back and this is a good sign that he is healthy. Now that he can see what’s going on, we have to be more careful about his security. He is a lot more mobile now, when he is awake. He still tumbles and rolls around a lot, but he is starting to get his legs under him.

Since it looks like he will have to be hand fed a few more months, and reared indoors during the winter, we have begun knocking around names. The lead contenders are:

Loki
Twitch
Tumbles
Peanut
Schoonover

43T votes and suggestions are welcome, but I cannot promise they will have an effect on the final choice.

Our little foundling continues his progress. He has started cutting teeth (toofers) and yesterday his little ears suddenly popped out. They had been little bumps on a bumpy head. Fur is getting a little thicker and you should hear the fuss he makes when the food doesn’t come fast enough! His eyes haven’t opened yet (another 2 weeks, we think)but he is sensitive to light. He still sleeps most of the time. He will crawl around a little but is such a squirmy thing it is no mystery he fell out of his nest.

We have a strict “no namiming” policy on critters for the first two weeks, but I think soon we are going to have to contemplate one.

And the little fellow gets fiesty! Starts squeaking like a rubber dog toy (okay, bad analogy). But once he gets his 2cc’s he’s back to sleep without a peep.

A friend of S. called, frantic and uncertain of what to do. She had been out walking and found a baby squirrel that had been knocked out or fallen from its nest. She picked it up, took it home, put it in a blanket, and called S. Of course.

We seem to be the foster home family for lost, stray, misplaced or transitioning animals of every sort. We’ve had cats, dogs, snakes, lizards, ferrets, chinchillas, mice, gerbils, fish, a chicken… yeah, a chicken. S. is known to be a taker-in of all things exotic, so when people come across helpless baby squirrels… they know who to call.

We figure the critter to be about two weeks, almost bald and not yet opening his eyes. S. found a wealth of resource info on taking care of baby squirrels (you believe that? One web site went on for forty pages!) and is administering the necessary infant care. Apparently once they have grown a bit they can be returned to the wild (if the backyards of Atlanta can be termed wild) and should go on about his squirrely business. He does have a pretty serious laceration on one side, but we have been cleaning it with neosporin and raw honey and it looks to be healing nicely. We are trying to be very conscious and alert during this very vunerable period, watching the little thing for any sign of illness or distress. Right now he just sleeps a lot.

That friend of S. owes us. Oooh, she owes us big time.