Squirrels: Pesky Pests or Furry Friends?

Up until about a year ago, I thought of squirrels (huh? did she say squirrels? She did. Stay with me here) as nuisances. A sentiment shared by many of you, I would imagine. We had bird feeders in the yard and enjoyed the birds coming to visit. The squirrels inevitably saw these feeders as their personal buffet and were seen ducking into the corn and seeds as often, if not more than, the birds. And perhaps also like you, we invested scads of dollars at Home Depot into squirrel deterrents, which never worked, I might add. I'd like to meet the genius out there who is laughing all the way to the bank after concocting these crazy contraptions that each and every squirrel I've ever seen knows how to thwart instantaneously, laughing and pointing at you as they do so.

The best deterrent we ultimately found was us running out there when we'd see them munching on our bird goodies, flailing our arms around like crazy folks. Oh, they didn't care for that one bit. But then last March, life as we knew it screeched to a halt--where life concerned squirrels, anyway. One afternoon, we let our dogs out and on our patio sat a baby squirrel. Young enough that his eyes were still closed, we have no idea how he managed to find his way from the safety of the trees to our patio but there he sat, clearly orphaned. And my sense of animal adoration kicked in. The aforementioned desire to keep squirrels away dissolved like the wicked witch of the west getting a smidge too cozy with a bucket of H2O. This little bit was no longer a bird food scavenging nuisance but a ball of fluff, a creature of God. There was nooooo waaaay I could leave this animal outside to die a most certain and hideous death.

We scooped him up, brought him in, put him a Rubbermaid container and thought: Now what? With the help of my vet, a handful of licensed wildlife rehabbers (thank God for you, Cherie) and the Internet (how did we survive without the Internet??) we cared for him until he was old enough to be released. Squirrels are illegal to have as pets in my state so make no mistake: this was not a pet. But this guy wasn't familiar with life that didn't involve humans, so as he lived with us until he could be successfully released, Scoot became very familiar with us and behaved with my husband, son and I like most squirrels do not. He would come right to us and take nuts, avocado or grapes, climb on our shoulders, hand-wrestle for a little playtime. He was awesome. Beyond awesome. But we let him go because it was the right thing to do, and he hung close to our house, visiting the back yard most days for some snacks and playtime. And after a couple months, he moved on, as squirrels eventually do. I was devastated; I won't lie. Heck, you knew I would be.

I told you all that so I could tell you this. Last Saturday, I went to a rehabbers lunch with a pretty big group of great gals who are all licensed to rehab various wildlife in the Atlanta area. These are the tireless folks who are called when someone takes down a tree and discovers a nest full of squirrel babies. Or if an opossum gets trapped in your basement and a critter-capturer comes and gets him out, etc. This is very cool to me. And I'm thinking I might learn how to do this and eventually get licensed. It suits my love of animals, right? Only drawback would be the death involved since you end up dealing with animals who are hit by cars or mauled by cats, etc. That's a bit of a hiccup for me but I am hoping the joy would outweigh the difficulties.

For starters, I'm going to work under a licensed rehabber and just learn and assist, help release squirrels who are rehabilitated and ready to go back into the world. Trucking will continue to be my day job, you know I can't leave Trucker's Connection or all my over-the-road pals behind. But in my off-duty hours, why not get more involved with animals? There's a lot to learn about wildlife rehabilitation, but what I already know is that squirrels are really fun, furry, sweet creatures. You might not want them in your bird feeder, but they--like birds--are simply creatures who, like all others, are seeking food. Many folks have, like me, come to see these climbing fur balls in a new light. Take it from someone who had one as a pal for a short time, they're good critters.

My Scooty Pooty when he was still pretty little:



Scoot, stopping by to visit and play one afternoon: