Trilobite

Happy Earth Day! Well, thought about walking to work….but I was late and did not have the energy. Then I thought of riding my bike, but it probably had flat tires since it has not been used since last summer. I wanted to do something helpful…then an answer came to me later that day.

A few days ago “Fluffy” Tri-Art’s mascot (black squirrel that has been living in the building the past year) was caught in a live trap. Steve drove her approximately 30km away. I worried because I thought she might have a litter of pups. Sure enough Friday rolled around and a hungry pup appeared. One of the staff rushed it to the Kingston Humane Society. When I heard of it – I requested one of the guys go look for other ones. It would be unusual for a litter to consist of only one. Sure enough while Justin was searching a squawking pup crawled up to him. Not far from it was a dead one. This little guy was pretty feisty. He was considerably bigger than the first one found and his eyes were open. He was very hungry and he managed to gain strength in licking up some peanut butter. The first lick was funny to watch. He was not interested in solid food yet – as he spat up the peanut chucks. He was very eager to get the water through the pipette after that. Surprisingly, I learned that a few employees had friends or family that had fostered squirrels before. Unfortunately, they could not be reached or take on the responsibility at the time. With some consultation, I decided to take on the “little project”. Now on the third night (24 April) I am getting used to the routine of feeding soya formula 4-5 times a day and stimulating the pup to go to the bathroom after. Today he wanted some more peanut butter at dinner time. That is a good sign. From reading on the internet we believe he is about 5 weeks old and should be able to go on his own in a week or so. I am not sure if I can take care of him the whole time as Banjo is going in for surgery this coming Wednesday. He will need some TLC after that. I have yet to decide. Well the experience has been refreshing.

He claimed my sweater!
Thirsty.
Can I have some?
Thank God he can’t jump yet!
I never thought I would be feeding a squirrel like this…