Tales from the Bark Side

By Keith Ross | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, February 23, 2008

Welcome back to the bark side of life here in Ottertail where the wind chill remains below zero and in my mind I keep hearing snippets of the song “Summer Wind.”

I have a two-part tale from Dave and Susan Pawlitschek of Frazee, that may qualify for the “Logic vs. Instinct” contest currently going on. If you have battled squirrels around your bird feeder, like we have here at Rosswood, you can certainly testify to their cunning and creativity and logic as it may be. Which one of these applies? Here's part one of Susan's tale about her husband and a baby squirrel named “Francis.”

Francis was born about the end of August 2007. We found him in the grass, cold and hungry, and figured he was 3 weeks old.

When picked up, he crawled under my shirt and snuggled in. Not knowing where he came from, we took him into the house, put him on a heating pad, and fed him with an eye dropper — 1 quart of milk every four hours around the clock (which included a 2 a.m. feeding too).

We had him checked out at the vet and were glad to hear that squirrels don't get rabies. We also bought him canned kitty milk to feed him and later on we put rice baby cereal in his milk.

Francis stayed in the den. He played like a kitten and climbed like a squirrel. He loved to climb up on a top shelf and sleep; so I made a bed there. We even brought in a tree branch for him to climb on.

He was potty trained by placing him in a container of wood chips, immediately after eating. The first weeks he mostly ate and slept. Francis spent a lot of time on the computer (literally) with Dave.

By the middle of October, it was time for him to go out and get used to his environment. It started as short times in the afternoon, but Francis always hid in his box because it seems squirrels don't like the direct sunlight. His naps with Dave on the hammock were a favorite. We loved the way he always crawled under our shirts and slept there.

When it started to get cold, we knew we had to move him outdoors and get him used to the winter months. There was no more living in the house. Dave built a double-walled squirrel house with insulation in between.

Dave had no more built this house when two more babies showed up. We knew where they came from. A neighbor boy was over and had seen one of them fall out of a big bird house. Dave managed to put that one back and we waited for two days for the mother to come back, but she never did.

Thank you, Susan, for part one of “Francis the family squirrel.” Next week we'll have the conclusion and see what happens next in the saga of a saved squirrel in Frazee.

If you want to enter the “Logic vs. Instinct” contest, you can e-mail me at info@rosswoodkennels or write to me at Keith Alan Ross, Richville MN 56576; or phone me at 218-495-2195. Please try to keep them at about 500 words but if you can't, I'll make it a two part tale as I did with this last one.

Keith Alan Ross writes from his home in New York Mills.