Adventures in Squirrel-Sitting

Hi everyone and Happy Labor Day weekend. I hope you get to enjoy a nice three-day weekend like I do. Tonight, we found a really young (and hopefully healthy!) baby squirrel on our driveway. While there isn’t much for me to say now, I can tell you a few things:

My dad was going out to pull in his truck and he noticed this little blob near the garage. He thought it was a hamster at first, but low and behold, it was a baby squirrel. He brought my sister and I out, and after a few minutes, I decided to call Animal Control to see what we could do. The little baby wasn’t moving much but he was definitely breathing and didn’t look injured. If anything, he just looked sleepy.

baby squirrel

Animal Control came after about 15 minutes and the officer helped move the little squirrel from the garage (which he wiggled into) and into the grass so she could check to see if he was injured. Again, we saw that he was okay, just very young. He clearly still wasn’t too strong for walking, although he did attempt to climb the tree in our front yard. After telling us that she couldn’t take in our baby squirrel, she provided us with a bucket and towel to keep him in over night. And that’s where this ends for now! I’ll update this post tomorrow and keep you all posted on how our sweet little new friend does!

UPDATE!!!

Hi, everyone. This is Ana writing to you all on Monday (9/6/21) with an update on our little baby squirrel situation! He made it through the night for one, so that’s great news. Second, he now has a name and his name is Chip. 🙂 Third, we attempted reunification (meaning we tried to call out for a mama squirrel using a looping baby squirrel sound that was set near the bucket he was chilling in) and it didn’t work. So, we aren’t sure what happened with Chip’s mom, but regardless, he needed a new place to go. When we met with the Animal Control officer yesterday, she had mentioned a wildlife rehabilitation center that we could reach out to for guidance. I called in the morning to see what to do with Chip and they were the ones to first help me try and reunite our baby squirrel with his mama. After that failed, they recommended we bring him in. Now as I write this, I can say that Chip is hopefully now in a safe place surrounded by people who will know what to do and help him get big and strong and then eventually go back to the wild.

This video that you see on the left is little Chip all snuggled up in the towel provided by our local Animal Control. I took this video this morning (also don’t mind me baby-talking to the little guy haha). All he has done since we put him in the bucket is sleep. He loves snuggling with his tail lying over his face or with his paws resting on his nose. While I’ve definitely tried to give our little baby squirrel his space, I’ve wanted to check on him from time to time to make sure he’s still breathing and is doing okay. I really hope he’s going to be okay.

While I only knew this little squirrel for less than 24 hours, I became so attached. This is going to sound so weird, but I hope that our sweet little Chip has the most wonderful life a squirrel can ever have. He brought the shortest, sweetest, and most random little adventure to my family. Chip, every squirrel I ever see, will now always remind me of you. 🙂 You were one cute little guy.

Have a good week everyone!

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