Apparently I have a pet squirrel. He showed up a few years ago and didn't seem scared of people. So I threw out a few nuts for him and I noticed that he ate the bird seed that I threw on the ground. As time went on he became even less scared of me. I could set up obstacles in the yard for him to eat his nut and he would go through them to get that nut. Eventually I could feed him by hand.
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| That looks like one fat squirrel |
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| Last winter in the snow |
This relationship has it's ups and downs. Sometimes he digs holes in my planters, messes up the grandkid's fairy village, chews on some of the planter webbing, or chews on some of the wood around the deck. I've learned to deal with those things-mostly with peppermint essential oil. Squirrels don't like this oil and stay away from things that smell like it, so I liberally spray peppermint on things I want him to ignore. For the most part, this works; part of the problem is that it wears out over time and I need to reapply the spray-remembering to do that is iffy sometimes. But for the most part he is pretty friendly and doesn't get into trouble too often. The squirrels we had in CA were very destructive but this one isn't bad.
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Checking out the "other squirrel" in the house
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Sometimes he sits on the table waiting for a nut
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Getting his nut out of the truck
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| Eating some of the sunflowers I grow for the animals |
This squirrel has a name, Sammy. Sammy works if it's a boy or a girl, turns out he's a boy. I first started calling squirrels Sammy when my kids were little. We had squirrels that ran around the trees in our yards and my girls were interested in them, so I named each squirrel I saw "Sammy". The kids got older and discovered that there were many squirrels and they thought I was crazy to call them all "Sammy". Well now I still have many squirrels, but I've gotten to recognize and know one pretty well and what else would I call him but Sammy.
Sammy has gotten to the point that when I open the back door - he comes running for the deck, expecting to get a nut. Then he wanders off and does whatever a squirrel does and we do this again the next day. If I'm working in the yard, he finds me, stands in front of me or follows me around asking for a nut. And I still set up obstacles for him to climb over to get his nut. Even the grandkids can feed him a nut, they have learned how to stay still while Sammy checks out the situation to see if it's okay then he takes his nut. If I'm too busy or away for the day, Mr UAW feeds Sammy his nut.
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| You've got a nut for me, right??? |
His nut is a walnut. He really likes walnuts the best. I tried almonds but apparently they seem like something to bury; each time he get one, he buries it. I always have walnuts around, I eat them every day in my oatmeal. He usually shows up at breakfast time. Our table that we eat from is by the slider to the deck. He just shows up at the slider, stands on his hind legs, folds his front hands in front of him as if he's praying for food, his little ears perked up, his tail in a graceful arch behind him, he looks intently at the door opening and at us as we are sitting at the table. Once in a while he climbs the screen door and peers around the edge of the slider to get a closer look at us.
The only time I don't see Sammy is if there is a predator around. It could be a cat, an owl, or an osprey. He's pretty smart and knows how to take care of himself. But one day I noticed that he had a problem.
Sammy got mites or maybe it was mange. Anyway, he came to the door one day and most of his fur was gone and he looked so thin. He scratched at his sides a lot. Each day he still came for his nut but he seemed a bit depressed. It was October and I was concerned that his fur wouldn't grow back in time for the cold weather that was coming. So I looked up squirrels and mites/mange. There were many things I could do but the most reasonable one was to feed him Ivermectin-a horse dewormer. I was familiar with Ivermectin from working with horses. The amount of Ivermectin to give a squirrel was "half of a grain of rice" and since I could already feed him by hand I was sure I could put it in the creases of the walnut and he would eat it. He would need this once a week for 3 weeks. Problem was this was the time of the year that people were trying to use Ivermectin for Covid so I couldn't find any at the feed store. But I remembered my friend at the stables where I volunteer. I told her the story and she was glad to give me a very, very, very, little bit of Ivermectin out of one the tubes she kept on hand for her horses. So I was able to do that for 3 times, once a week for 3 weeks. Sammy ate it all up, the taste of the Ivermectin didn't bother him. (I know some horses that I wish would take their dewormer that easily). Then over time his skin started to heal, he wasn't scratching himself so much, then his fur started growing back, then he started gaining weight again, then he was back to his normal fat self.
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| When Sammy first showed up with a problem |
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Then he started looking worse
Eating his nut, his skin was starting to heal
Getting his meds in a nut
Getting better
And now he's all better!
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