After Hurricane Ike, tons of animals were left homeless or injured because their trees, nests, etc had been destroyed.
Animal rescue centers were FILLED to overflowing.
Before I go on with my story I will say here that if YOU would like the chance to help forest creatures and you want to show your appreciation of the outdoors just like Lanie does, then head on over to the following website, which is the site of the wonderful Rescue Center where I took my squirrel after Hurricane Ike hit.
Here it is: http://www.bruknernaturecenter.com/
Okay, back to the story of my squirrel...
When I was out walking my dog, he found this little guy lying under a tree. I thought it was a dead animal so naturally I pulled my dog back away from it.
But then my dog did that...thing. When my dog wants to smell roadkill or something, he pulls and pulls and yanks your arm out of its socket trying to get there. But when he sees a poor little defensless animal, he has a very different reaction.
He had the same reaction back when we found two cats...
The first time a skinny, starving cat showed up at our door, our coonhound Max, who normally loves to chase cats, did not react normally at all. He licked her head like he was comforting her, and brought his toys to her as if she could play with him, and when my mom put out some milk for the cat, he did not try to get the milk, he just watched as the lapped it up. (We've since found out that drinking milk is really not good for cats- but we didn't know that back then. Anyway, that particular cat is now Max's beloved sister, so she is fine now.)
The next time, I was out walking him and someone had left kittens outside in the middle of winter in a field. Who would do such a thing? Max starts urgently pulling me behind a tree. Like, "We have to go now!" and giving me this sad, pathetic expression. It was weird. So, we go, and there is this little kitten, meowing and freezing its rear end off. So I pick it up, take my winter hat off, pop it into my hat, and carry it home. It slept in our warm bathroom that night with a bowl of cat food and water and later a family came and took it away (someone had dumped a whole bunch of kittens and that family had found a sibling to this one, so they were willing to take them both).
So about the squirrel. Max starts pulling toward this animal..thing..on the ground, and I naturally start resisting his pull, only I notice that he's not yanking me toward it like it's something gross. He's doing that sad, pathetic "we must go there now" insistant pull. So I decide I better take a look.
I leaned over and checked it out, and at first I thought it was dead. It was partially covered up by leaves, but I could tell it was- or had been- some kind of baby animal.
Then I noticed it was shivering.
Max did that sad whimpery thing he did with the cats, and began to gently lick it on its little head.
I took off with Max toward home. If it was shivering, it was alive, and there was no way I was picking it up with my bare hands and walking home with it. This was no kitten.
So I left Max at home and got an old towel.
I wasn't sure what to do with it, so I left it wrapped up in the towel on our front porch. That doesn't seem too smart but I really didn't know what to do. I felt I couldn't bring it in the house and my parents have never expressed pleasure when I have brought home various animals. Trust me, I've brought them home and they don't like it.
Well during dinner (which was outside, by the way- the hurricane left us with no power so every meal was made on the grill) I decided I better go check on the creature. I found it unwrapped, and lying on the cement with a cat hovering nearby. I totally freaked out. I wrapped it back up and decided, oh well, I am taking this little guy inside, it's not safe out here. I was so, so glad that cat didn't have time to do more.
So I got a crate for it and the towel and we began calling animal rescues, but not one of them would take the little guy.
Because of the hurricane, they were totally full. We called any rescue place up to an hour away. But because of the hurricane tons of animals were in rescue centers and no one could take him at all.
If he was injured, or if he was so young that he had no hair, then maybe they'd figure out some room for him because it would be more neccessary, but since he was old enough to have some hair and he didn't appear to be injured, they said I would just have to take care of him for a few days or a week or so until they had some room. Once they began getting their current animals ready to be released, then they'd have room to accept him. In the meantime, I'd have to take care of him.
Normally this is NOT the way they work- it is actually illegal to keep squirrels. You can't have them as pets or anything. And if you find one injured or anything, you are not supposed to keep in and take care of it, you are supposed to either leave it alone or call an animal rescue center; you are never supposed to try to care for it on your own, that is against the law.
But with the hurricane it was a different situation and it couldn't be helped. So they just told me some "do's and don't's" for taking care of him, and then said that as soon as they had space opened up, I needed to bring him in so they could start taking care of him since they were the professionals.
When I got him, I had no idea what to do. I kind of figured sadly that he would die that night or the next day anyway, so I wanted to at least make him comfortable and warm until that happened. But...the next day, he was still alive...and the day after that....and the day after that...so I began to get hopeful. I was really glad.
Here was the advice from the animal rescue centers. (This is for your own information but please don't take this as some real advice because every situation is different and if you find a squirrel you really should call animal rescue yourself.)
*Do not leave him outside. All the rescue places told me this. They said he will die if you leave him so don't leave him. You should get help from a rescue center ideally. But they told me don't leave him outside.
*My squirrel was old enough that he had small periods of activity where he'd be crawling around and stuff, trying to climb. So we put him in a crate so he wouldn't crawl out and get lost and be cold. Even if a squirrel is too little to move around and stuff, it's not a bad idea to have a covered enclosure because of other things maybe getting in, like cats or something. Don't put them in something like a box that has no way to breathe, obviously.
*One piece of advice was to NOT use a towel like I did, because they can get their little feet stuck in them and it can break their feet. Use a blanket but not a towel because terrycloth towels have the little "hooks" of thread. I used it because that was all I could find, and fortunately nothing happened to my squirrel, but I was lucky. Also he was a bit older. Sometimes very young squirrels with no hair or little hair will break their feet in terrycloth. :( So it is best to have a blanket not towel.
*Keep a heating pad on low under the squirrel's blanket (NOT directly on his skin- put it under the blanket so there's cloth between them). If you don't have a heating pad then use a hot water bottle but that's harder because it is harder to regulate the temperature of those and you will have to chnage it constantly and I do mean constantly.
My squirrel was big enough to move around and crawl on his own, but still, being a baby he mostly slept and only had small periods of activity. So I had to turn him over pretty often so he would not be warm on one side and cold on the other. Very young squirrels, especially those with little or no body hair, cannot regulate their own body temperature so they need to be kept warm all the time.
*Do not feed a squirrel anything. Some websites will tell you baby formula or even goat's milk. ALL the rescue places I called said these will hurt and possibly kill the squirrel. You really cannot feed them (which is another reason you can't keep a squirrel as a pet or anything). All you can do is keep them hydrated and warm until you get them to the rescue center.
*You put pedialyte (not pediasure, but PediaLYTE) into a medicine dropper or syringe (be sure to sterilize everything first, and also between each use) and you can hydrate them that way. Don't force it down their throat or anything, just try to get them to drink some from it.
I had to do this every 15 minutes...even at night. Yes, I set my alarm and got up every 15 minutes every night for an entire week. And I couldn't sleep during the day because I had to do the same thing during the daytime too.
If you see in the pictures, my squirrel started out with very wrinkly skin. It was stiff and wrinkly because he was dehydrated. The dehydration test is to very lightly (don't hurt them) pinch the skin and see how long it take to go back to it's orginal shape. If it stays pinched for a few seconds then they're dehydrated. If it immediately goes back to normal they're not.
When I first got my squirrel, he had very wrinkly skin and he practically never moved. By the end of the week I had him, his skin was less wrinkly and he'd started getting up sometimes and crawling around.
*Another thing I had to do every 15 minutes is try to make him go to the bathroom. This is yucky but very necessary. Baby squirrels cannot go potty by themselves. Their mothers lick them all over and that warmth and massaging is what makes it come out. However, if they are seperated from their mom like my squirrel was, they are in trouble. So the animal rescue places told me I had to get a warm wet wash-cloth and put it on squirrely's privates and rub them (gently of course) until squirrel poop and squirrel pee came out. Ew. I had to do it after every time he had something to drink, and it was very important because baby squirrels can die of toxicity poisoning if they don't eliminate their waste. But it won't come out on it's own. So, yeah, you have to do it for them. Or they die. That's why it's important and even if it's gross you can't put it off or just not do it.
*As I said, I had to set my alarm to get up every 15 minutes at night to try to get squirrely to take some pedialyte for hydration, and then sterilize the medicine dropper or syringe so that it would be ready for next time, and also do his bathrooming business for him. I did this every 15 minutes night and day, for the whole week I had him, so looking back I'm not sure when I slept, lol.
When I did this, every time I also felt him to see if he felt too hot or too cold, so that I would know if I should adjust the heating pad.
I also turned him over each time, so that he would get warm on his other side, because he would lay on one side, so then when I woke up next time I would switch him to his other side so that side would get warm too. That way he'd be evenly warm instead of warm on one side and cold on the other side.
It's important to keep their body temperature regular.
Above: "Ike" in the palm of my hand. He actually grew a tiny but from when I got him to when I took him to the rescue center.
Above: Holding Ike. This was when I was about to take him to the rescue center so I wanted a couple of me holding him.
Above: Ike taking a nap after he had some PediaLyte.
Above: Ike in his little place. Fortunately our power went back on after a couple days so I could get the heating pad for him.
Above: Ike climbing. Toward the middle of the week he began to have bigger periods of activity, instead of just sleeping all day, so I started to know he was going to be okay :)
Above: Ike gets a drink of PediaLyte. It's so cute how he'd grasp it in his little hands.
Above: When he'd had enough, Ike would stop drinking and give the syringe a little push, like "Okay, I'm done now."
Above: Ike resting. 
Above: See how wrinkly he used to be? That's when I first got him. Not good. Means he's dehydrated.
Above: Ike is starting to get less wrinkly.
Above: Ike is a lot less wrinkly toward the end of time together. Which is good because it means he is a bit healthier.
Above: Ike is sooo cute. I love squirrels. I love their hands and their noses and their tails and everything about them. Anyway this was after cleaning his poopy, which I don't love. ~~~
I miss "Ike" but I am very glad he seemed to get better and went to a good rescue center where people know what they are doing and can take care of him better than I could.
(And after being up every 15 minutes night and day for an entire week, I was ready for a good long sleep!)
Every time I see a squirrel I think of the little guy! (Which is a lot, 'cause, you know, squirrel are everywhere.)
~~~
BE LIKE LANIE:
If you would like to help defenseless animals of the forest and be like Lanie in your appreciation for the outdoors, check out the rescue center where I took "my squirrel" Ike.
Ike will appreciate it, and so will I.
You can make a difference in an animal's world (Just like Ike!).
THANK YOU :)
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