One of my co-workers spotted a baby squirrel getting pecked by crows on the sidewalk in front of our shop. He ran over to shoo the birds away. Upon his gallant rescue, the baby squirrel ran up his leg and crawled all the way on top of his head. He did not know what to do. Another co-worker (we shall call her sucker) saw this happening and ran over and took the squirrel from him and said she knew people who had rehabilitated wildlife in the past.

She brought it into the office and we all fell in love.

After many phones calls, texts, facebook and instagram posts and internet searches she thought she had found someone to take it.

She made arrangements for after work and even had a possible back up plan for the next day if that did not work out.

Meanwhile...

I sent a picture to my husband, followed by facetime so he could see the baby. Much to my utter surprise he wanted me to bring it home.

Of course both kids wanted it to come home as well. My daughter practically begging me.

As fate would have it, the person who was going to take it completely flaked out. The girl who brought it into our office did not have anything to keep it in but said she could take it the following day to AWARE (a local organization).

Fate stepped in again with an unsolicited text from a good friend, offering a free cage for the baby.

I knew if I took this thing home it was not going anywhere for a while.

And now we are raising a baby squirrel.

He began on a steady diet of kitten formula, rodent block and pedialyte. We have moved onto 1 less feeding per day of formula, a water bottle and added in carrots, fruits and nuts. His favorites by far are watermelon and pistachios.

He loves to crawl up into our clothes or pockets after he has eaten to pass out.

He is still getting the hang of this eating with his hands.

No one can agree on a name. I like baby Groot, the boys call him Barnabus, bust mostly he is just Buddy.

From what I can tell by feeling his teeth and some of his traits we found him between 4-5 weeks old.

To see more of him you can follow along here.

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