After Tropical Storm Fay, here is a plea for volunteers to care for hundreds of rescued baby... squirrels!
You'll have to provide them with "quiet space in your home" and feed them every three to four hours, thenrelease them into the wild when they are 12 weeks old. Is this really the best outlet for people's charitable urges? I'm sure there are some youthful rats somewhere that need cuddling.
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51 comments:
Well, squirrels are just rats in cuter outfits after all...
It's a nice experience. Try it.
The only trouble is that the squirrels wind up pretty tame and view people as climbable. This results in misunderstandings in later life.
Long ago some Ranger Bob on the radio, calling in with a wildlife report, took phone calls; a woman called to report that a robin had landed next to her at a backyard table, and squawked twice.
She assumed, she claimed, that the robin wanted water. So she went inside and got a bowl. The robin drank, splashed around a little, and flew off.
Ranger Bob didn't know. He assumed somebody had raised the robin.
I however thought : that's my robin.
Tameness has survival value in a drought, if you can find an intuiting woman anyway.
The robin evidently had lost the habit of landing on heads. Perhaps that hadn't worked out.
Baby rabbits on the other hand are eternally ungrateful.
When you set them free, they run off and hide.
I've cuddled many a rat in my day...but they just don't respect you in the morning!
I know it's not rational, but I view squirrels as evil nasty brutish rats with long tails that scream at you. Reds are the worst.
Chipmunks, I like a lot. We feed the chips and shoot the squirrels
Squirrels that are not tame are extremely nervous.
But even a wild chipmunk can be hand-fed with a little patience, if you try to fit his not-very-exact idea of immobility.
"I know it's not rational, but I view squirrels as evil nasty brutish rats with long tails that scream at you. Reds are the worst."
You're right. It's not rational. It's squirreltional.
Feed the squirrels until they are nice and fat, and then eat them.
If only I had a nickel for every time an attractive lady has come up to me on the street and said, "my, my, aren't you cute as a bushy-tailed little squirrel! I could just scoop you up, take you home, and feed you acorns until the cows come home," I'd have enough nickels to buy my own damn acorns.
Ann,
to be clear, my comments was focused on how differently I view Squirrels and Chips.
Nasty and cute
I don't know about squirrels.
I paid good money to have alligators airlifted to New Orleans.
Any sane person would have taken the opportunity to return that hole in the swamp to its intended state of nature.
I guess we'll continue to pay for pumps and levees. Pimps and cooks who use too much pepper need some place to call home, too, I guess.
Best use of squirrel:
Measure Ingredient
10 each Squirrels; disjointed
2 cup Corn
1 pounds Bacon; diced
5 pounds Potatoes; diced
2 quart Tomatoes
3 pounds Onions; diced
2 pounds Lima beans
1 cup Celery; diced
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
Flour
Place the squirrels in a large kettle; add water to half cover. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer until squirrels are tender. Cool. Remove squirrels from stock and remove meat from bones. Place squirrel meat back into stock and add next nine ingredients; cook two hours. Thicken stew with a small amount of flour mixed with water; simmer 30 minutes longer
Baby squirrels? I'll try to get some. The dog will be delighted.
When you set them free, they run off and hide.
We feed the chips and shoot the squirrels
All wild animals should keep their instincts in tact and remain leery of humans.
lars--I lovve brunswick stew--squirrels have the advantage of both being cute and tasty--will try your recipe out--but you should add lima beans and corn
It's no sillier than religion, after all. Just be thankful that a federal program to save squirrels isn't yet on the Democrat platform.
yet
This cri de coeur by the St. Francis Wildlife Assoc. is going out to Tallahassee residents.
What and deprive the locals of much needed roadkill?
Cheers,
Victoria
The bible is Wild Orphan Babies by Wm J Weber.
Every now and then an interesting wild animal falls on you, and you have a hobby for a month.
Except its ubiquitously mentioned Purina Cat Chow has been reformulated since the book was written and no longer soaks up enough milk to be adequate fluid, so you have to improvise on that one.
It has the advantage of being politically incorrect in that nobody not officially licensed as a wildlife interfacer between pubic and nature is allowed to care for animals any longer. People get really really angry at you for raising an orphan bird.
Licensed wildlife rehabbers take orphan birds and feed them to more valuable orphan birds. They have a theory of life that you don't.
Like all charity today, doing good is the exclusive province of organizations, and the best you can do is interfere if you try it yourself.
``Leave it alone'' is an emergency instruction directed at children. Actually raising a baby bird is easy, if you know what to feed it.
Spotting an actual orphan, as opposed to an ordinary fledged baby hopping around in the care of its parents, would be the only caution.
If it has feathers and is hopping around, it's most likely okay. Not that it won't almost certainly be eaten pretty quickly. Most natural babies don't live long.
rhhardin--points well taken but inquiring minds want to know what you feed your dobies--if its puree of baby squirells you are in big trouble with peta
..."Most natural babies don't live long."
Especially if Obama gets a hold of it!
ZIIIIINGG!
A serious news article refers to squirrels as "babies"!
What if their mothers abandoned them to save themselves. Are they still "babies"? Shouldn't we just let nature take its course?
Purina One. It's made with rice and chicken, if you believe the label.
Incidentally there's only one rooster today. I suspect a particular dog got loose again and took out two of them.
Maybe the same anonymous egg farmer will drop off another load of unneeded roosters this September and replenish the stock.
the saga of rhhardin and life on the farm in indiana continues--thanks for keeping us apprised rh
It's time, people! It's time to begin to change the attitudes of Americans about what their responsibilities are to the squirrels!
Squirrels do incredible damage to homes and garages and farm building, being just rats with pretty tails.
Let's see..... the cure is.....
roast squirrel
baked squirrel
squirrel pot pie
diced and stir-fried squirrel
bbq squirrel
Squirrels do incredible damage to homes and garages and farm building,
Several times we have opened up the family camp in Upstate NY for the season and discovered that red squirrels have trashed the place.
Squirrels deliberately tease my dogs. They climb the small trees in my backyard, some of which are no taller than 20 feet and will chitter and throw things at my minpins. It drives my pups crazy and the squirrels know it. There are much larger and safer trees available for the evil rodents to occupy but it's just not as fun for them. Often I will join in and spray the squirrels with my water hose which sometimes knocks the invaders to the ground. My dogs are getting larger and smarter and soon they will catch the evil one as it races towards the fence. That will be a happy day for all of us.
Sounds like a supply of snake food.
A Cautionary Tale
Was working a wreck where the neighborhood agrodriver had rolled his van with the 34" tires and the wedged-in turbo-charged diesel. (Not really exaggerated - several of the drivers who squeezed between the wreck and the dropoff told us, "I just knew this was going to happen to him, the way he goes through here.") He went away to surgery, and the van got ground up pretty bad being loaded upside down on a tilt-bed towtruck; it was either too heavy to right it with the equipment that responded, or the disposition of the unit was intractable.
And we found his squirrel.
From what we gathered, he had rescued it during some tree-felling, and let it ride around with him after it had imprinted. Apparently it distracted him at a critical moment cornering - leaped on his head, jammed its little jaws into his shirt looking for a nipple, nibbled an ear, clawed a cheek - it's easy to imagine ways a squirrel could defile your driving. Unfortunately its back was damaged in the wreck. I fed it water, but the prognosis was very poor.
Moral of Cautionary Tale
Ms Althouse, you should divert those of your post-maternal instincts that are focussed on baby squirrels, to wheedling for grandchildren.
the saga of rhhardin and life on the farm in indiana continues--thanks for keeping us apprised rh
I"m pretty sure rh is from Ohio, not Indiana (using this as an example).
Gotta defend the birth-state, even if I only lived there for three months (and one of those was in an incubator, which means it's possible that I started life in much the same manner as rh's roosters, at least the non-feral ones).
I remember a fine tale of animal lovers compassion for the "children" of dead animals left orphaned - from 13 years ago at Cuyamaca State Park.
A female jogger was jumped by a cougar, killed, and partially eaten. Rangers then shot the cougar, who was found to have two cubs.
The jogger also left two young kids, aged 4 and 6. Friends of the divorced woman started a fundraiser for the care of her 2 boys.
Animal-lovers set up a fundraising drive at about the same time for the poor little cougar cubs.
It was no contest. People felt sorrier for the cougar cubs. Giving nearly 42,000 bucks. The charity for the jogger's two children got 9500 dollars.
Some people in California saw a moral lesson in this, but since lots happens in California, then moved on to other matters...
Simon Kenton said...
Ms Althouse, you should divert those of your post-maternal instincts that are focussed on baby squirrels, to wheedling for grandchildren.
Squirrels and bats are two things Ann does not consider huggable.
Yeah, Simon K, Drill SGT has it right.
I mean, let's just say you don't want to be invited over to Chez Althouse for Thanksgiving, knowwhattamean?
Cheers,
Victoria
My office looks out onto a courtyard, filled with tropical plants and squirrels. The squirrels throw themselves from the trees onto my window and scream at me for peanuts, which I hop up and toss out the window -- quickly so one won't reach in and grab the nuts from my hand.
I like to think I'm being kind but really, I'm scared of them.
That does it! This thread, and that video awhile back of the woman and her son hunting squirrel and then the woman cooking it, leave off the two most important things: How does one skin the little rodents and clean them? Huh? I do need a demonstration of this before taking it on. I expect one makes precise slits then pulls, in one expert swoop inverting the entire epidermis, little legs and all. Then another expert slit and ... scoop.
Then again, maybe you burn off the fur and toast the skin like delicious roasty toasty chicken skin from which the feathers were removed by blanching in boiling water and running through a drum studded with rubber fingers on the inside until all the feathers were rubbed off without damaging the carcass of the unfortunate bird.
* checks YouTube *
Well I'll be buggered. Nevermind then. Is there anything YouTube hasn't got?
Tornado warning.
This should put a damper on the helicopters ferrying the Pepsi Center. Pepsi. Ha ha ha ha. That's still funny.
Helicopters? Pepsi Center?
My Lord Gore, I pray your disciples are not sinning against Mother Gaia, burning that abomination, JP4?
Lord Gore forgive them, in their Vanity and Eliteness they did not walk to thy Pavilon.
How green is the DNC?
Green for thee, JP4 for me :)
Beth,
Scared of them? Really?
This is in Louisiana, right? Surely there of all places you can take an air rifle to them and no one will complain, right?
Or if not, just feed them tainted peanuts...
Cedarford:
Nicely on point.
Kirk,
She teaches in a college, and those places would rather die than have a gun around for anything.
Lawgiver said..."Squirrels deliberately tease my dogs. They climb the small trees in my backyard, some of which are no taller than 20 feet and will chitter and throw things at my minpins. It drives my pups crazy and the squirrels know it."
Squirrels are assholes. Don't be deceived. Birds are assholes too. So are butterflies. I've watched them long enough to know this for a fact.
Hmmingbirds are definitely assholes. Much more interested in denying use of the feeder to rival hummingbirds than in using it themselves.
DrillSgt,
I know, but it's in LA. Everyone keeps saying how different LA is, so I thought....
"Squirrels are assholes. Don't be deceived. Birds are assholes too. So are butterflies. I've watched them long enough to know this for a fact."
hahaha If I had a blog that would be the quote I would use. That may be the funniest thing I've ever heard The Divine Ms. Althouse write.
doh, *seen* her write.
Squirrels are assholes. Don't be deceived. Birds are assholes too.
Careful Althouse you don't suffer consequence similar to this site:
I think maybe my Cats and Other Assholes theme this week has been a very bad idea because within about two hours of the first post, the fill rate and thus revenue on my ad spaces took a catastrophic nosedive which has yet to recover. I’m talking an 80% decrease, and the only explanation is the instance of the word “asshole” on my front page at least 735 times.
Squirrels taunt my dog, too. Although, he's responsible for a bit of self-torture. I recently witnessed a squirrel brawl where about six of them were running up and down the trees and jumping around and screaming at each other. One of them actually fell out of the trees and landed right at my Boston's feet. When the moment he has been dreaming of for years actually happened, he just stared dumbly at the squirrel on the ground for the few seconds it took the little asshole to start running and he lost the chase. Poor domesticated useless little pup.
When the moment he has been dreaming of for years actually happened, he just stared dumbly...
As he is of Boston heritage, perhaps you could comfort him with:
the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
Send them all to Australia, in return, you can have the cane toads..
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