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| Name: |
Alex
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Age: |
Eighteen months old
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| Gender: |
Male
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Kind: |
Eastern Gray Squirrel
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| Home: |
Pennsylvania, USA
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I
received a phone call from a country store about half an hour north of
me. Someone found a baby squirrel, would I please come get him because
they had no idea what to do with him. They had my phone number because I
order my outdoor squirrel nest boxes from them. I had already raised one
baby squirrel who was injured. Seamus had died suddenly two months
before they called about Alex. I feel he was sent to me because of the
grief I had over losing Seamus. The night before they called me about
Alex I talked to Seamus and said please come back, my life is so empty
without you. Someone upstairs heard me that night and the very next day
Alex T. Squirrel came to live with me.
Alex was four weeks old, not old enough to be away from his mother. He
had to be fed special formula with an eyedropper, every two hours. I
mixed the formula myself, the recipe is at
Alex's Treehouse on the Dr
Alex Orphan Squirrel pages. The people who found him said there were no
other squirrels in sight. I think maybe Alex, being the very bold
squirrel he is, went on an adventure and was lost. Raising a baby
squirrel is almost as much work as raising a human baby. They are very
demanding and need a lot of care. The first month he spent here he slept
in a small basket in the crook of my arm. When he started to get bold he
had to move into his cage. But I will always remember that teeny little
face poking through the baby blanket in his basket when he woke up.
Squirrels are very unique in that they have virtually no waste. They use
99% of what they eat. They have no ammonia in their system so when they
do pee it is just water, no smell at all to it. Also their little poops
are about 1/4 the size of a raisin and hard as a rock, no smell either,
just pick them up and throw them away! Alex does not have an odor at
all, when you enter my house you cannot even tell I have a pet. I have
litter on the bottom floor of his cage, corn cob pellets actually, and
that is where he also buries his stash. This part of the cage has a kind
of musky smell, but it is not unpleasant. When I am not here and at
night are the only times Alex's cage door is closed. But even in the
cage he has enough room to jump and play and work on his nest etc. His
nest is inside a ferret hot air balloon. His cage is also a ferret cage,
four stories with ramps and ladders and toys and anything a little
squirrel could possibly want.
His favorite game is Squirrel and Tree, he is the squirrel, I am the
tree. And then we have squirrel practice, where I do my best to chase
him around like another squirrel would. He is very smart and plays
tricks on me at night when he is in his cage. He will cry a little bit,
he knows I will open the cage door to see if he is okay. Well as soon as
that door is open he is out of there at warp speed up to the loft and
out on a beam where he knows I cannot reach him. This is one of our
games. He looks down at me with a look on his face that can only be
described as a smirk. He gives kisses on demand, his kisses being a
little nip on the nose! He is a wonderful roommate. I even
brought my daybed into the living room so that I can sleep in the same
room as him. He also loves the camera and will pose for hours for me
while I get pictures of him. In fact one day I was trying to get a
picture of him in mid air while he was jumping onto me from the top of
his cage. He must have did the jump about 25 times until I got too tired
to try anymore. He is very fast. He just looked at me like, "dumb
mom, you are way too slow to catch me in mid air."
Alex is special because he is my best friend. He is a very intelligent
squirrel who has helped me to cope with a very rough illness. Alex found
me when he was only four weeks old and brought such joy to my life. He
gave me a reason to live, to keep getting up in the morning. Alex is a
very special squirrel.
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