Red Rover, Red Rover, Let Tiny Come Over...

I have been on my own for a few weeks now and I have to say that I'm enjoying the good life. Most of my day is spent looking for food in the neighbor's yards or waiting patiently for my family to bring me my snacks.



Sometimes when I see them, I am so happy that I can't just sit and wait in the tree. I throw caution to the wind and run across the yard to meet them.



As you can see, I have a pretty nice set-up. Little did I know, I was about to make a big mistake...

Tiny's trip outside is a success at last!!

Some time went by and Big Mama had no choice but to let me do my bathroom business inside the nest. I'm not sure why she kept cleaning it up. I don't remember my squirrel mama doing that. They also had to keep feeding me my formula and my favorite, apples!



When I was finally able to crack a seed open and eat it she thought that we should give the outside another try. Lucky for me Kitty had gotten into a fight with another cat (Probably because of his bad attitude). Big mama put this thing on his head to keep him from chewing on his boo-boos. He was not happy about it at all, but because of it he couldn't have eaten me if he tried, so it worked out pretty good.



Peanut carried me outside the nest in her pocket, which was my favorite place to sleep. She carried me all the way to where they feed the other squirrels and set me right on the feeder. I had never seen so much food in my life!



Then they put some food on the ground and I climbed down. I loved feeling the sunshine on my fur! It felt just as warm as Peanut's pocket, maybe even warmer. I climbed up and down for a good long time, picking out my favorite seeds, until I got tired.



Before Big mama and Peanut took me back inside they gave me a nice scratch on the head to let me know how proud they were.

Tiny Finds a New Nest

It had been the scariest day of my life, but for the first time I felt protected and safe. I was suddenly very tired. It looked at me and said, "maybe we should see if your mama is going to come looking for you". So it walked waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to the other side of the yard and we both sat and waited… and waited… and waited…



After a very long time it went back into its nest and when it came out it was holding something to its ear and talking into it. I heard it say “what should I do?” and “what if the mother is looking for her?”

It was getting dark and it had a worried look and I was scared it was going to leave me out here alone. I didn’t know how to get back to my nest. So I ran over to it and stood at its feet. It put covers on its paws and reached them very slowly towards me, which I thought was funny because such a big thing looked a little scared of me. Then it picked me up.

I went right into its paws and nuzzled my nose into it and fell straight to sleep.

When I woke up I was wrapped in the softest leaf I had ever felt and a smaller version of the big thing was holding me, it was probably her pup. Altogether there was a mama, a papa and three pups. They took turns holding and feeding me.

They gave me milk from a thing they called a bottle and then put some food out for me. I was so happy I made squeaking noises to let them know it.



I decided to call the one that found me ‘Big Mama’, the daddy 'Big Papa' and I named her pups 'Peanut', 'Persimmon' and 'Pecan'. Peanut always wraps me up in a blanket to hold me and keep me warm while I sleep.



If I don’t find my mama again, I decided that this nest might suit me just fine.