On Wednesday, my oldest son was playing ball outside and he came upon 2 baby squirrels on our lawn lying by parts of a nest. We figure the nasty winds had knocked their nest out of the tree.......so he comes in to get my husband and they got a box, put in the heating pad and parts of the nest and other stuff from the ground and lay the box by the tree so that the mother can come and find them. Once it got dark and colder out they brought the box into our garage and put a light on it to keep them warm - along with the heating pad, then yesterday the box went out by the tree again, because my husband spotted a squirrel looking for them (and it looked like the squirrel had a broken leg). So we have this box sitting by our tree, with an extension cord going to the house for the heating pad - all day. They also put peanuts on the ground all around the area where the box is, hoping to attract mama squirrel. We came home after work/school and the babies were still there. The peanuts were gone. We wondered if she rejected them.
Of course we looked on line and it said not to give them cow milk or soy milk and that if you give them water to be careful not to get the water near the nose, which was hard because of their size - even with a dropper. My husband called around and found a rescue place that was open about 30 minutes away. So off they went to the squirrel rescue to deliver the babies. The man at the rescue told them that they were about 2 weeks old and dehydrated and that if the mother did have a broken leg, she wouldn't have been able to care for them, he immediately sprayed them for fleas, put them in an incubator and got them some hydration.......so now we have a case number where my son can call to check on them. Once they are 11 weeks old, they will be set free in the woods so they can be the nasty rodents that they are meant to be.
One thing my son brought back with him is that the center is run by volunteers and of course we gave a nice donation last night, but my son, who is almost 11 knows that in the next few years he will have community hours to serve for service projects for church and for boy scouts, so he is already planning on volunteering at one of these wild animal rescue centers. Also, when he bridged over to Boy Scouts last weekend, he promised to do a good turn daily. I think this counts for a weeks worth (but don't tell him that).
1 comment:
Ahh, if all you look at is the little faces they don't look to much like rats. What a nice thing to do, it always amazes people when I tell them that boys are as tender as girls, even though they express it differently, this is proof positive.
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