Last year, about this time, my yard flooded, as it regularly does during excessive rains, and the local frogs and toads went to town in it. The next morning I found a whole lot of eggs in a rapidly shrinking pool. I saved a few hundred of them and raised them in buckets until they were adult enough to hop into the world.

Well, now I've got a baby squirrel.

Neighbor of a friend is going off on vacation for a week and my friend is feeding their chickens. On the way out they tell her, Oh, by the way we found this this morning while mowing the lawn. And they show her a box with a baby squirrel they've nailed to a post because they were worried the chickens would get at it. Which they probably would. They are little T-rexs after all.

So no way the mama is going to find him there, we don't know where the nest is so we can't put him back, and since chickens, and lots of cats in the neighborhood, we can't just leave him in a shallow box in the yard for her to find. Sooooo, now I've got him.

He looks to be about 2-3 weeks old. He's got a nice, soft coat of fur, but his tail isn't fluffy yet. Eyes are still closed, but he does move around when bothered and is pretty active and nosy at moments. Little short of 3 inches long if I were to spread him out. Seems to have a fair bit of energy especially since he hadn't had any fluids all day. Thankfully he is big enough to take Pedialyte from the eyedropper.

If I keep him I'tll be about six weeks before he's grown to be a 'little squirrel' and hopefully much more easy to take care of. And then maybe by December he'll be able to make it on his own. However, the more I'm reading about raising one the more I think it's best to turn him over to a center that better knows what they are doing.

There are good enough guides on YouTube to show what to do, and I think I could do it. But they require a lot of attention during the day at this stage and I'm not always home enough. And the most determinant bit of news I'm reading is that they really should be raised around other squirrels so they don't habituate. Since I've only got the one he'd be a lonely fella.