I couldn't let little Pippin the squirrel go without someone else knowing his sad story. We live in the part of New Jersey that had 9 inches of rain yesterday. Early in the evening, my husband saw this little baby squirrel go across our front lawn and driveway and then lay down next to a tree in one of our flower beds. He seemed sick or injured so we called animal control. He called us back, and said to leave it there, that maybe it's mom would come out and get it, as it was still light out. I expressed concern that maybe one of the neighborhood cats would get it and kill it. Certainly no way for a little creature to die. The guy said "if a cat gets it, then Oh, well,", that's nature. I was kind of taken aback by his response. I knew that even if he came to get the squirrel, that it would be put to sleep, but at least humanely, not by other means. My husband checked on it regularly before we went to bed, and covered it with some leaves, to hopefully let it keep some body heat. This morning, it was still alive, breathing erraticly, and would twitch once in a while. Not wanting a cat to get to it, I called the animal control, and this time some one came out to the house. Thankfully, it was someone I knew who owns a local pet shop. Even he was upset that the person would leave this poor injured squirrel to be out in the rain all night. We talked, and I told him I had named him Pippin (I don't know why). He picked him(or her) up and could tell that it was paralyzed on one side, and would fall to one side. It's little eyes were opened, and I told him that he would be out of pain soon. At least the guy from animal control didn't think I was a loon. I was glad my husband got home when he did, because he said goodbye to the little guy too.
I know this may seem rediculous to some of you( or all of you), but I just had to name this little creature of God, that ended up in our yard. I felt if he was going to the bridge and (to my vet) to be put to sleep, they could at least talk to him by name. They knew we were having animal control pick him up.
Even though I know he could not be saved, at least I knew he would not suffer.
Thanks for listening about little Pippin the squirrel.

Scooter's Mom

Scooter crossed the bridge 9 weeks ago today..Always loved, and never forgotten, forever in our hearts.

Not rediculous at all... we are all animal lovers here and would have done the same thing for any animal that crosses our paths.

Absolutely not rediculous! It is a good thing that there are people like us who care about even the smallest of God's creatures and will go to great lengths to protect them! We had a large covering with a concrete pad under it that we had built on our property about 4 years ago to park my horse trailer and every year the mocking birds would come in large numbers to nest in the roof of it. The bad part about that was that the roof of it had openings all around the edges for ventilation. When the babies got big enough to try to hop around, they would often fall through the openings and onto the concrete pad below (I hope it was always an instant death for them). Well, after trying everything we could think of to keep the birds from wanting to nest in there (or even on there after we tried to block all the openings) and nothing was working, we had no choice but to tear it down. Everyone thought we were crazy for destroying such a nice structure for such a reason, but if I had to bury one more baby bird I was gonna lose it, so we did what we had to do, and I feel nothing but peaceful about it!
God Bless little Pippin. I'm glad you were there for him....

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL THING YOU DID. YOU BOTH MUST BE WONDERFUL PEOPLE. IT SEEMS ALMOST EVERY SPRING A BABY BIRD WILL FALL FEOM NEST OR SOMETHING AND YOU TRY TO DO EVERYTHING A REGULAR PERSON KNOWS WHAT TO DO BUT MOST OF THE TIME THEY DIE. THIS LITTLE SQURILL DID NOT DIE UNKNOWN
JOANNE(RAGGS MOM)

I love what you did. I love squirrels very much. They are extremely intelligent animals. The babies are so cute. I applaud you. Take care.

Chestnut's Mommy

Shortrish, That was so sweet of you to try and take care of Pippin and to make sure that he had a name. My neighbor found a baby mallard duck in her window well this spring. She and he husband were on their way out of town so she brought it over to me. I knew of a vet who takes in wild birds but he was closed for the day so I put him in a box, with a blanket and holes so that I could take him first thing in the morning. I gave him water and something to eat and he seemed like he was fine when we went to bed but he had passed on by morning. I was just sick about it. I felt so bad for his Mom as I am sure she was looking for him but he could not get out of the window well by himself.

Dugan's Mom
Krissyo

That was so kind of you to do what you did. Not many people would have helped a squirrel; I have a friend who is scared to death of them ever since one bit her and gave her rabies when she was a child. So that was a very brave thing you did, and St Francis would commend you for your kindness and caring. God bless you!!!
Lisa

Thank God Pippin made it to your garden, wonderful caring people.

i would write a letter of complaint, when you phone these people you expect some sort of guidance from a 'human being' that cares and i dont see any harm in saying so.

God bless you for giving Pippin love.

Love Sue

Sometimes I throw up my hands in despair at the cruelty that people show towards animals, both wild and domestic. Then someone like you restores my faith in humans again for a little while. Thank you for showing such compassion towards the little one. All animals deserve that compassion.

I believe that God put animals on Earth with us to have companions. But sometimes I think He also put them here to help him judge us. I know the people that are cruel to animals will have to answer for that someday.

Thankfully there are people like Scooters' Mom and us in the world that can show animals that not all humans are cruel.

We used to have an extra-special squirrel in the neighbourhood. Everyone knew him...because his tail had been ripped off 3 separate times, whether this was by their nesting ( their tails can get pulled off, apparently, when they wrap each other too closely together! ) or by some other tragedy, so he looked more like a miniature bear. I named him Stumpie and it stuck, even with the neighbours. He'd been coming for seeds from our bird-feeder ( like all the other millions of squirrels ) for about 7 or 8 years already, and we'd always try our best to defend his spot on the feeder, cuz he'd always seem to get really picked on by the other ones....probably because he looked different. And yet, great guy that he was, he was the only squirrel who would allow another one to sit on the opposite side of the feeder while he ate. He was the underdog of squirrels here. I used to leave a separate pan of seeds out, just for him, away from the feeder, so he wouldn't be as bothered. It got to the point where he'd see me inside the patio door and darn near come inside because he knew I'd have some separate seeds for him. I never wanted him TOO tame, lest he trust the wrong person to be kind, so didn't encourage him too much, but he got so used to us that we could refill the feeder while he was still sitting on it. I'd yak away to him almost as much as I yakked to Nissa....and our kidlets learned to never chase him like they'd occasionally do to the other squirrels. He was a friend to all of us. I finally got a few good pics of him the last fall he was around, which I'll try to post here later on.

The previous winter, I lost both my Mum and brother and was still grieving heavily. And the next fall, for 3 weeks I was watching and waiting for Stumpie to start loading up and get fat for the upcoming winter. But he never came back. I cried for about a month, in between crying for my other losses, because now I'd also lost a friend. I still miss him out there and I'd always hoped he'd still be around when Nissa was no longer with us, either....but now the yard is just one, big, lonely space, despite all the other wildlife we get all the time. Things will never be the same.

Do you think something happened to him or did he go somewhere else? Think the best for him, he sounded like quite the survivor who would never give up without a fight!
Lisa

I think he was killed, or just died, as no one's seen him around since. The only thing I don't think happened was that he got run over by a car, at least not close to our house, as I kept checking the street for squirrel bodies near here. But there are coyotes and dogs who chase squirrels and goodness knows what else around here. I'm not even sure how long squirrels live on average. But I said several prayers for him at the time, for his angels to help him, no matter where he was. But I'm positive that, were he still around, he would have been in our yard, because he often took refuge here under our eaves, knowing it was a safer place for him. Good ol' Stumpie.

IF STUMPIE LIVE 7-8 YEARS THAT IS PROBABLY A GOOD LONG LIFE AS I SEE THEM DEAD RUN OVER BY CARS ANF IF YOU FEED AND PROTECTED HIM THAT LONG I THINK HE LIVED A GOOD LIFE. I HAVE NOT GOTTEN A NEW PET YET AND I LOVE TO GO OUT IN MY BACK YARD AND WATCH THE SQUIRRELS AND OTHER WILD LIFE AS IT FEELS SO EMPTY WITHOUT RAGGS RUNNING AROUND
JOANNE(RAGGSIES MOM)