Far out Friday

If any day there was the UnExpected, it was today. It all began with the morning drop off of the girls at school. I'm sitting in the traffic jam, waiting to turn when I look over at this guy parked on the side of the road. I guess that he'd just let his kids out for school too. Nothing unusual, right? Then, I got really grossed out and sick to my stomach. He lifted a bottled water container, that had this gooey brown stuff in the bottom and spit in it. How anyone can have that disgusting habit is beyond me. I thought that I'd never have to see that again when I moved back to Ohio from Alabama, but I guess that I was wrong. Disgusting! I tried to erase it from my thoughts as I turned so that I could stop my roiling belly.

I went home and the rest of the morning and afternoon were nothing out of the ordinary. I had some office time, got some AVON brochures ready to deliver to my customers, and got on the road. I had a couple of personal errands to run as well so that meant that I wouldn't finish my AVON brochure route in time to pick up the girls. I decided to treat them to some ice cream and finish up before heading to church to help with our book sale.

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and our car windows were all at least partially open as we let in the nice breeze while driving around town. I pulled to a stop at the intersection of 3rd and Hudson Dr. in the Falls and another car with a mom and teens in it turned onto the street. As they did so, we heard the mom go "Awe, look at the baby squirrel!" I think she might have started to tell me to be careful, but I was already jumping out of my car. And there it was, sitting in the street, right next to my tire! The most adorable thing! I was never so thankful for traffic because if I'd pulled out, the poor baby might have been ran over. My first thought was that I had to get it out of the road.

I dumped out the AVON brochures onto the seat and used the box to scoop it up. The poor thing was so scared that I didn't want to scoop it up in my hands or anything, but I would have if it meant getting it out of the road. Thank goodness I almost always have AVON boxes in my car. After coaxing it into the box, I started looking around at my surroundings. There was busy traffic everywhere! How could I let it out in this area without it going back out into the road. It'd never survive on its own and though I wasn't very experienced with baby squirrels, it didn't look old enough to be away from the mommy yet. I decided to take it home with me and got back into the car. At the very least, it could go in my fenced back yard and have a little better chance at survival.

The other car had left and I looked over in the yard, hoping to spot a mommy squirrel. Instead, I saw ANOTHER baby squirrel climbing up a tree! Surely the mommy had to be somewhere nearby....at least I hoped. I turned left and took another left into the adjacent parking lot next to the yard. By that time, the other baby squirrel had come back down the tree and was sitting at the bottom. My girls and I began walking over to it and all of a sudden it started running towards Mackenzie and wouldn't stop running towards her. She kept backing away from it and it kept going towards her. It was kind of comical. I'd told both the girls not to touch them because you never know with animals how they'll react to people and certainly never touch wild animals, especially when they're scared. The silly baby squirrel kept going towards Mackenzie and she kept backing away. I told her to stop and it stopped so I scooped it up in the box with the other one. It kind of reminded me of that nursery rhyme about Little Bunny Foo-Foo only with squirrels!

We began looking around for the mommy, but no luck. I decided to head on my way, with the babies tucked safe in the box, but I had no idea what I was going to do with them. We were stopping for McDonalds as I continued delivering my AVON brochures. I was talking with my mom on the cell phone, telling her about the squirrels and asking if she knew what to do when Maura piped up, "I think I saw the mommy squirrel in the tree, only she was dead or not moving." So, I turned around to be sure. We hung out in that parking lot for 45 minutes to make sure mommy squirrel didn't show up, but the freeway is right next to this road and there's busy Hudson Drive. I really don't think mommy was able to be around any longer or she wouldn't have left the babies.

Thank goodness for the Internet! I was able to find out exactly what to do. I tried to do the right thing and contact a "re-habber" which is a person who takes in wild baby animals and raises them until they're old enough to be on their own. However, no one has called me back. Again, thank goodness for the Internet because now it looks like I'm caring for them myself until they can be let loose in the back yard. We have a big back yard that's fenced in. Who knows..maybe they'll stay, but if not, there's a nice field between a few of the properties back there. At least they'll be grown enough to have a fighting chan ce.

I guess it's going to be a good experience for Mackenzie & Maura (me too!) We've named them "Sam" & "Elliot" after one of my favorite actors, Sam Elliot. I've posted some pictures below. According to my research, they're about 5 weeks old right now and they can't be released until they're about 5 months old. They can start having solid food when they're 8 weeks, but for now, they have to be formula fed (puppy milk formula) every three or four hours. I'm lucky to have a flexible schedule as an AVON Representative.

They have to be kept warm, too, so a bed has been made for them in a box with a lid (holes in top)and it's sitting on a heating pad on low. When they get bigger, they'll go into the dog cage, but for now, all they seem to do is sleep between feedings. They like to burrow & cuddle together in the pillow case. You use a pillow case or something smooth for covering because their toenails are so long (needed for climbing--they're tree squirrels). Towels or other types of material would get tangled in the loops.

I've posted some pictures below and also a video! I'll keep you posted on the journey! Talk about the UnExpected!