Adopted by a Squirrel

[BarbieH]

This is waaay off bird topics. We've been adopted by an outdoor squirrel.

Every day she comes up on the porch to my home office window, climbs up on an outdoor chair, and visits me at the window. She raids our apple tree, and we sometimes give her walnuts on the front porch.

But the topper was last night during all those storms we had out here. She scampered onto the porch and scooted up our front tree for shelter. She's our little outdoors adoptee. :)

She's probably tame enough to take food from our hands, but we're not interested in getting rabies shots if she were to get nervous and bite. :x I think squirrels can also carry pasturella, so we are definitely keeping our distance. But it's good to be friends with her from afar. :)

[Janie]

Barb, if you'll send me your address, I'll pack up 10 to 20 squirrels (regulars in my back yard) and send them to you. BTW, they love an attic and if they can gnaw their way in, they'll spend the winter there making babies! :whistle: :rotfl

[BarbieH]

Oh great. :roll: Bad enough, I think the word got around to the local squirrels thanks to our neighbor lady. She feeds them PB&J cracker sandwiches from her back door; one of the squirrels hangs from the screen door to get her attention! :lol

We're suckers for animals in this little part of town, and that's Sucker with a capital S.

[shylevon]

I don't know if this happens there, but around these parts we have "Squirrel Balls". It is a rather sad happening, when a brood of baby squirrels, happy in their nest, gets soaked with drippy tree sap. They fall from their nests, all stuck together in a ball. This makes them very easy prey to predators.

My old boss, who is an animal lover and husband to a vet, used to rescue these squirrel balls, soak them till they separated, then raise the young. He always has a housefull of the little sweeties.

[BarbieH]

Ew! No, I haven't heard of squirrel balls before. (I will send you a picture of something that it brought to mind. :D) Your former boss sounds like a good human being. :)

[michael]

I'm with Janie on the packing list. I'll also include a few tame skunks too! Courtesy of our neighbors who not only feed the squirrels but them also. They will come knocking on your windows and doors too should you ever decide to "bond" with them...........Michael and Goofy

[Estee]

My husband and I once saw a squirrel eating a roll in a tree outside our house. My husband said, that is so funny- weird! Yesterday I hollowed out a roll exactly the same way that squirrel did!

Of course, when we came into the house, there was a squirrel-sized hole in the screen over the window where my fresh baked bread and my hubby's roll had been. No other damage done-- just took the bread and gone. :roll:

[linda040899]

:rotfl :rotfl :rotfl :rotfl
When I freshen the food dishes, there's always seed left in the remains in the dish. I used to dump that at the back of the property, thinking I was doing a good thing by giving the wild doves an easy meal! Well, that "easy" meal attracted a lot of 4 legged creatures, as well, so I've stopped the practice! I swear animals can smell any kind of food a mile away!

[butterfly1061]

Yep, Janie's right about those pests, I mean squirrels. Luckily, I don't have any cause I live in a new subdivision and the trees aren't big enough for them to nest. I prefer my backyard birds and Hummers (got about a dozen this year :clap )

[carrier]

I really do miss the wildlife that I grew up around...

Where I grew up we had a hollowed out tree in our back yard that every year a pair of raccoons would raise thier babies in...at least 6 of them. It was so cute to see all those little heads peeking out from inside the tree....:rofl:

We had lots of rabbits, skunks and the occasional deer in the backyard too.

Now all I see are a few squirrels, rats, seagulls (which I personally think have a sort of regal air about them) and pigeons. :(

[Janie]

Jackie, my squirrels much prefer nesting in a nice warm ATTIC than in trees! Who needs trees? :rofl: We have had to have them removed twice in 15 years, an expensive pain in the butt. We trapped one when the professional trapper was out of town so my hubby had to drive that squirrel 15 miles up the road and release it in a wooded area. He was horrified (city boy that he is) that the squirrel was gonna come out of that trap and go right for him! :rofl:

[Screamer]

Your story reminded me of when I was a teen, I had a squirrel as a friend, it used to come on the inside of my window sill to eat all kinds of munchies I put there.

I hate to say that I know people that grow veggies and they put traps to trap squirrels so they don't eat their tomatoes beans etc. Can you believe such bullsh*t! I had it out with an uncle of mine on this subject because he would trap squirrels and also sit near his cherry tree and kill birds with a bb gun if they tried to eat a cherry >: , poor little birdies, he now thinks that I am disrespectful ( who cares) for speaking to him the way I did and by telling him that what he is doing is terrible and pathetic and that I would call the authorities on him, Crazy thing is that he was so proud of telling the story of what a great shot he is, (what a loser). I ended the conversation telling him that he does not deserve any respect.

[Janie]

You should remind your uncle that it's illegal to kill any native bird. In many states there is a $15,000 (yes, fifteen thousand dollar) fine. The only birds, non native that are legal to kill, would pigeons, starlings and English house sparrows. I'm not sure what the laws are on squirrels but both times I had to hire trappers to remove them from my attic, they took them 10 to 15 miles away and wouldn't have dreamed of killing them. I can't imagine anyone taking pleasure in killing a bird or a squirrel but then again I'm in the city of former quarterback, Michael Vick, and that is a whole 'nother story. :( :mad: >:

[Eliza]

Oh, how I do love squirrels... I think that they are the most darling critters and were always my favorite babies when I vol. at a wildlife refuge :) There was one gray squirrel who LOVED to hide peanuts in my hair (I had LONG hair and wore it in a bun). He's stay on my shoulder for HOURS while I fed the other babies and cleaned cages. We also had a pair of red squirrels that would race from my palms, up my arms, across my shoulders and back to my palms...

Sorry. Got a bit nostalgic there. Sometimes the most endearing "pets", if you will, are the ones we find wild in our backyard :)

[Janie]

E, have you ever had contact with flying squirrels? A friend of mine rehabbed them a while back and because the babies were so young, she brought six of them with her on a beach trip and OMG, I fell in love!!!! They were just learning to glide and had to be the cutest little critters I've ever seen. From what I've read, they make pretty good pets, too. My hubby was horrified I was going to come home with a baby flyer! :D

[BarbieH]

I'm afraid something happened to our little squirrel friend. :( When we came home from an art show Sunday, there were pine comb remnants on the front steps, and a significant amount of blood. :(:( I'm afraid one of the stray cats may have gotten the squirrel; there's been no sign of her since then. We didn't find her body anywhere either.

We let our immediate neighbors know, in case they found her injured (could be dangerous). But I'm afraid she was too tame and a cat got her.

[BarbieH]

The squirrel is back! I'm glad she is okay, but the incident got me thinking about how we may be affecting her ability to survive by the seemingly innocent act of feeding her. Plus, I still don't know who got hurt on my front steps...

[Ilovelovies]

[QUOTE=BarbieH;87622 Plus, I still don't know who got hurt on my front steps...[/QUOTE]


Could have been the cat..squirrels can be vicious :lol . No joke, I raised one about 8 years ago from a tiny baby and I could not believe how smart and full of personality they are. Bubba Gump was his name and he would play with stuffed animals like a cat does, on his back kicking the fire out of them

He was the sweetest thing unless you got between him and a pecan and then you had better run for your life :lol
~Sharon

[Z28Taxman]

Could have been the cat..squirrels can be vicious :lol . No joke, I raised one about 8 years ago from a tiny baby and I could not believe how smart and full of personality they are. Bubba Gump was his name and he would play with stuffed animals like a cat does, on his back kicking the fire out of them

He was the sweetest thing unless you got between him and a pecan and then you had better run for your life :lol
~Sharon

They're not that tough. The ones in my neighbors backyard get beat up by bluejays. :rofl: They fight over peanuts and the squirrels always lose.

[dani]

There are squirrels on our property and they are chewing through the cocoa and coffee that my dad is trying to grow :x... he is insistent that they are pests and need to be killed but I won't hear any of it... they are just trying to live as far as I'm concerned :(... they are hilarious too, there is one who is always in a tree that we like to sit under, and he/she is always 'throwing' things at us. There are also little monkeys who throw things at us. :lol

[carrier]

Little Monkeys ?? :rotfl


I wish I lived somewhere that monkeys taunted people....that's hilarious! :lol

I know several people that I would LOVE to see a monkey throw things at..... :omg:

[Janie]

I'm with you, Carrie! I would love to have monkeys running around, even throwing things, but don't you just know that if we did, they'd be driving us nuts! :rofl: I think monkeys of any kind are the most interesting creatures on the face of the earth. I could sit and watch them all day long! :D In my childhood, that was the ONLY pet my daddy denied me! He never said no to dogs, cats, pigs, chickens but put his foot down when I begged for a monkey! (thank God!)

[dani]

An aunt of mine has a pet monkey that hangs on to her shoulders all day like a possessive child. It has been known to break into neighbours' houses and squeeze all their toothpaste out of the tubes :lol :lol :lol