I rehabilitated a baby squirrel last summer. He lived in my room (which I filled with branches for him, it was a little chaotic lmao) and he was free to come and go as he pleased but didn't until he was confident. He'd leave for an hour or two at first, then he'd leave for most of the day, until he'd come back at night. After a few months of that he started leaving overnight, until one day he didn't come back for a week and I thought I'd never see him again. Then one day I was on my back deck and he showed up, with a girlfriend! Then he came into the house and we cuddled on the bed together with my dog like we did when he was baby, one last time. After that he came back with his girlfriend a few more times, but always kept his distance (like I taught him to when he was outdoors).
But that last day where we cuddled and he fell asleep curled up against my neck while I pet his belly, it was like he was coming to say goodbye and thank you.
I cried a lot.
Edit: Sorry for making you all cry, if you scroll back in my posts, you can see pictures and video of my baby boy Shadow that will make you smile!
He kind of did it naturally, honestly. I was lucky to have a very large rooftop deck, it was downtown Toronto and very loud so he was naturally much more squirrely (sorry for the pun) out there. I didn't encourage him to come to me for food outside, and outside, and didn't let him play with me or just interact at all.
Outside was for serious business, and he was like any other squirrel, inside my room was different though. I tried to discourage bonding but he just wasn't having it. He wanted to play and be social and cuddle.
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u/MrTodd84 May 20 '26
I love how they got all excited when they looked at the door cam and rushed to answer.
This was such a good MadeMeSmile