Another Mouth to Feed at 3am!

Yesterday afternoon, Edward, the babies, Sprocket and I were out for our daily walk along a busy street in our neighbourhood, when we noticed a small squirrel coming toward us... and he kept coming. He wasn't at all afraid of Sprocket; in fact, it soon became clear that he wanted to join our motley crew by climbing up my leg. We tried to shoo him off to no avail. He was VERY persistent and taunted me by playing chicken with passing cars. I picked him up in a fabric shopping bag and took him to the nearest house. The squirrel was SO tame that I asked the man who answered the door wether he had raised it. He said he hadn't, but noted that the squirrel had approached him hours earlier on the sidewalk. He gave me a box, and Sherbourne (the name of the street we found him on) came home with us.

I immediately got on-line, found and called the only wildlife rehabilitation center in the area: The Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary. I had to leave a message. Meanwhile, Sherbourne was hungry. He had curled up against my chest, wrapped his tail around his head and was making soft chucking noises. We put him in his box in the garage, and got the babies to bed. I then rushed out and bought puppy formula as per instructions I found on-line (this turned out to be incorrect and dangerous advice). I tried to syringe-feed him, but he was not interested. Dismayed and concerned that he would become dehydrated overnight, I reluctantly left him to his own devices. However, in the meantime, I found an on-line squirrel rehab community (?!) and they were very helpful.

Their advice is what led to me sitting on the garage floor at 3am cuddling a groggy squirrel and syringe feeding him a home-made electrolyte mixture. That went over well, and somewhat satiated, he curled up in an old shirt against his hot water bottle and went to sleep. Yes, I am that sucker.

After a long day waiting for several leads to get back to me, when I got home from my dentist appointment this afternoon, the Rideau Valley Wildlife Sanctuary had called. So, after another feed to a now ravenous (and clingy!) Sherbourne, I packed his box in the car as soon as Edward got home from work and drove to North Gower. I was SO impressed with the Sanctuary. They've already cared for 130 orphaned baby squirrels this year! They thought Sherbourne was between 10 and 12 weeks old, and confirmed my suspicion that he had been tamed by someone. They're going to desensitize him to people and if they feel that is successful and he won't endanger himself unduly, they'll release him.

I feel so remiss by not having a picture of a temporary lodger, but trust me, he was cute. Really!