A squirrel named Mouse.......

[Bobute]

There is a mouse in the house, only he is not a mouse but a baby
squirrel. Poor mouse lost his home one day when a chain saw gang
showed up to cut it down.
What a way to come into the world. Blind, naked, in a nest with
your brothers, sisters, and Mom. All cozy, drinking mothers milk,
yawing, and curling in a ball with a full tummy.
Then a very strange, frightening noise comes closer and closer.
Loud voice make little mouse shiver and Mom tremble. "My babies, my
babies, help save my babies."
How can we run? No where to hide. Shake, tremble, cut, chop.
Voices, loud noises, help ! We are falling ! Crash, the ground cries,
shaking with fear.
Our home, my babies, run, help, save my babies. In the aftermath
one baby was found deep in the branches. One voice spoke up, "save
this little guy, but how?"
Lady would you like a baby squirrel to raise. He might live if
you take care of him. Will you try? "Well, I have bottle fed kitens
before, why not? Come here little guy, you are going home with mE,
then we will figure out what to do with you."
Now there really was a squirrel in the house and he was called
Mouse. His home was a shoe box with lots of soft cloth to keep him
warm. He drank every four hours from a kitten bottle of warm kitten
formula.
He slept alot with a full tummy, curled in a small, hairless ball
of skin and bones. His eyes were closed, his tail was very long.
Almost as long as his tiny body.
Over time Mouse began to grow. His eyes opened as he drank his
bottle looking around. His fur began to cover his body and his tail
began to get full, but not bushy. Kinda prickly at first.
The shoe box would no longer do as he moved around to explore too
much. His home than became a cat carrrier, which he soon began to eat
in different places !
Mouse ate the shoe box, his tiny dish, and a few holes in his
home. It was time to go nut hunting and shopping for a water bottle.
He ate raw vegtables, squirrel food, nuts, chew blocks, and another
feeding bowl !
Mouse loved his tummy tickled or to run across the back of the
sofa and then jump on a nearby shoulder. There he would sit, looking
around, quite satisfied with life and himself. His paws were sticky
on the bottom. All the better to climb trees and swing from high
branches.
He grew into a very handsome, bushy tailed squirrel. He also grew
restless, the cage was not where he should be. We took our friend to
a local state park one day to set him free. It was time to say goodby.
Not easy for a mom to turn loose, but mother nature was his other
mom and he needed to explore, find a lady, raise a family and
hopefully live happily ever after.
We opened the cage, He ran in, ran out, jumped on my shoulder and
just sat there, not sure. "Come on Mouse, just go, please." He
repeated the same pattern until he discovered grass.
"Oh my. Wow, never felt anything like this before. Let me run a
bit and dig. Why do I feel the need to dig? Hey mom, look at me, see
me run, all the way back to you and sit on your shoulder again."
"Ok, enough Mouse, let try a tree maybe. How does that feel? You
can run up, you can run down !!!" Everything was so new and
different. Goodby was not easy.
One last time, my shoulder, the tree, the grass, and he never
looked back as he ran across a field of green.......

Bobute, mE
xoxox