I mentioned last post how much Craig has been missing Romeo. We knew he needed to go to a better place to socialize with other squirrels, and to get prepared to be released into the wild, but we still missed him! So we talked to the wildlife rehabilitator who told us we could come visit him the Sunday after Christmas. It's a small place, and it has lots of random animals: a duck with a lame foot, a goat, a little dog whose owner didn't want him anymore, birds, baby racoons, deer, asian deer, horses, geese, squirrels, etc. etc. etc... Basically any needy animal. No one gets turned away. Most come in as abandoned babies like Romeo, and they are able to rehab them back into the wild, and some, like the poor duck with the lame foot and the deer with a bad back due to poor nutrition as a baby (when he was a pet) will stay there forever. Anyway, we got to see Romeo in his new big outdoor cage. It looked like a great place for squirrels. The property backs up to hundreds of acres of preserved land, and there were lots of 'wild' squirrels that had been released but stay close to the property because there's an abundance of yummy food for them there.
Anyway, Romeo will be released when it gets a bit warmer out and he gets a bit older.
It had only been about 3 weeks since he came here, but he was already getting more wild. We had to lure him out with the almonds we brought for him. They are his favorite.
He eventually warmed up to us...it took awhile, but the almonds sure did help!
Yep, it's him. There he is lifting up his arm for Craig to scratch his special spot! He looked great, just a bit bigger. His eyes and ears had grown the most!
Here is one of two baby deer that will be released.
Oh, and here is a weird looking goose thing that really seemed to like Craig. He wagged all of his tail feathers just like a dog, and kept nipping at Craig's leg! He had a birth defect on his wings...they grew crooked or something, so he will have a forever home there.
It was good to see Romeo, kind of sad that it took so long for him to warm up to us again, but also good to know that he's becoming more wild, so that he can survive in the wild once he gets released. Marilyn, the rehabilitator, mentioned that they are always looking for 'foster parents' for baby squirrels, to help them out until they're old enough to feed themselves. (Same thing we did with Romeo). Depending on how things go with the new baby, we may think about helping out when we can.
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