This past Easter Sunday, when my husband went outside in the morning to feed our outdoor rescue cats, he found a newborn baby animal on the ground, dangerously close to the cats’ feeding area. He picked up the baby (who felt very cold to the touch, but was still very much alive), came in the house, wrapped it in a towel, put it in a container and brought it to me, letting me know that he had found a baby squirrel. It didn’t have any fur and its eyes were still closed. Trying to Locate the Momma Squirrel I immediately went online to find out what to do in such cases, and one very helpful article suggested several steps (see link below). One of them included filling an old sock with rice, heating it up in the microwave for 20 to 30 seconds, putting it in the container with the baby squirrel, and then placing the container on the ground or on a branch of the closest tree to the spot where the baby had been found, so that the mom would come and get it. Because of our outdoor rescues, we decided it would have to be up on a tree. We went outside and chose a tree with a branch that I felt I could reach with the help of a ladder (I was the one going up, as my husband in 10 years my senior and has peripheral neuropathy). Now, at my age (55 as I’m writing this article) and being anything but very physically active these days, what I did was no small feat. As my husband held the container with the baby and the ladder for me, I climbed up to the highest step (which was already scary enough), then proceeded to climb up the tree and then inch my way as far as I could on one of its thicker branches. My husband climbed the ladder and handed me the container, which I then taped to the branch. I came down and we left the baby there, hoping for the best. Calling a Rescue Group About a half an hour passed, and although a couple of squirrels had circled the branch, there were no takers. I started getting concerned about the baby getting cold again, now that the rice bag had enough time to cool down. So I decided to call a local wild animal refuge to ask if I should bring the baby to them (Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge; please see link below). Although this was an Easter Sunday, there was actually someone live answering the phones! This very nice lady directed me to a volunteer assigned to my area. I called the volunteer, and she promptly gave me the number of another volunteer who lived just 10 minutes away from our house. Impressive and efficient network! So I called that second volunteer, who proceeded to give me a lot of great information. She asked me to make sure the baby was visible to the mother, so that she could find him. I remembered how the baby had partially burrowed under the rice bag, looking for warmth, so I was concerned the momma couldn’t see him. I decided that I needed to climb up the tree again, reheat the rice bag and arrange the baby in a way that would make it easy to spot him. The volunteer also suggested to use a distressed baby squirrel call to attract the mother. She actually knew how to imitate a baby squirrel call, which was amazing; but since I have no such talent, I decided to search for one on YouTube. Technology the Rescue So, with my husband’s help, I climbed up again, placed the reheated rice bag in the container and made sure the baby could be seen. Then I came down, found the perfect video on YouTube using my husband’s tablet (please see the link below) and stood under the tree, hitting play non-stop. A squirrel got closer, but nothing happened. Standing up by the tree and manually hitting play got pretty old after about 15 or 20 minutes, so my husband had the idea to download the video on my cell phone (where I got it to loop) and hook it up to a small wireless speaker. So I went up the tree one more time and taped the speaker by the container. I brought a chair outside and sat far enough that I wouldn’t scare the momma squirrel, and close enough that I would be able to see if she came for the baby. I also needed to keep the birds away, as some of them kept circling the tree, attracted by the distress call. There I stayed for almost 2 hours. My husband brought me lunch, and I ate as I kept replaying the loop and hoping for the rescue by the momma squirrel. At a certain point, a squirrel got very close to the container, and I was thrilled, thinking it was going to happen! But the squirrel went nuts (pardon my pun), looking straight at me and making what sounded like angry noises as it quickly flicked its tail, and then left. I felt very discouraged, but I was also confused about that squirrel’s reaction… Time to Call the Volunteer… After almost 2 hours without any luck, I started feeling very tired, and was also concerned about the baby getting too cold again. The volunteer, who had been keeping up with our misadventures via text, suggested that I should bring the baby to her for the night. She would feed it, give it some pedialyte and keep it warm, and then I could try again the next day. So, with the help of my husband, I climbed up the tree one more time and brought the container with the baby back down. As I was reheating the rice bag and getting ready to take the baby to the volunteer’s house, she texted me and asked if I had a photo of the baby that I could send to her. I took a photo, texted it to her and left to meet here at her place. The Punch Line As I was driving to the volunteer’s house, I started thinking about why she had asked for a photo of the baby… And then it dawned on me: was it really a baby squirrel that we’ve been trying to help? By the time I met the volunteer, my first question to her was: “Is this an opossum baby?” Yes, she confirmed, and proceeded to explain that the most noticeable difference at that age is that opossums’ hind feet have opposable thumbs. But as I looked more closely at the baby in the container, I realized that it did have what looked to me like a little opossum face, and I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t noticed that until that moment… In conclusion, I had spent most of my Easter Sunday going through a whole rigamarole with my husband and getting scratched and bruised from going up and down a tree (not to mention putting the poor baby opossum through hours of being up on a tree branch with the screeching sound of a baby squirrel distress call being played non-stop by its side); all in the fruitless attempt to get a momma squirrel to adopt an opossum baby… I have to say it was an easy mix-up, as squirrel and opossum babies do look a alike at that age; at least to laypeople such as my husband and I (please see links with photos below)… After a very nice conversation with the lovely volunteer lady, during which she explained that it was very unlikely that the momma opossum would go back for the baby (especially since we have rescue cats roaming our grounds) or even figure out where she had lost it, I left the baby in her care. I told my husband what had happened on the way home and we had a pretty good laugh about it… The latest update the volunteer texted to me was that the baby was “warm, full and very active.” :) References: What To Do If You Find A Baby Squirrel On The Ground https://www.thedodo.com/what-to-do-if-you-find-a-baby-squirrel-1687155554.html Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g34515-d4061898-Reviews-Back_to_Nature_Wildlife_Refuge-Orlando_Florida.html Video: Baby Squirrel in Distress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxr53i2lI8s Newborn Squirrel Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baby_Squirrel_Rehabber_(2).jpg Newborn Opossums Photo http://nzrr.org/possums-eepers/
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Gisele Marasca-Vargas is a blog writer and an obsessive compulsive and overly sensitive animal lover. Archives
May 2022
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