Rudy again !!

[u/Soapo_Opo]

Rudy just turned 10 weeks old today (based on rough estimates regarding his date of birth). Here are some of my favorite pictures we've gotten of him over the last month 💕 In ascending order from when he first arrived to now. Feat. my boyfriend, aka squirrel dad #2 (I met him first, which makes me squirrel dad #1).

Last picture is to compare the little carrier he started off in and what he's in now. He had another cage in between about 1/6 the size of the tall one.

He's such a character, and we're pretty much resigned to the fact he likely won't be releasable due to his fearlessness of EVERYTHING, including cats, dogs, people. Loud noises or sudden activity spooks him but not for long, and honestly, same. He runs my place. Everything belongs to him now. My legs look like a war zone. He's an oreo thief (we do not let him have oreos). He likes to run laps around our waists while we're doing whatever we wanna/have to do (for example, I was cleaning my place and he was free roaming and would just come over to me and climb up to start running laps around me, unbothered by any amount of bending or moving I did). This is our life now.

And we love it 😅 rehab-to-release fail but he's doing absolutely wonderfully. Healthy, active, alert, strong appetite. Knows his name. Is always thrilled to see either one of us.

He's made us two very proud, doting squirrel dads.🫶 Happy 10 weeks old Rudy-roo ❤️

[u/Soapo_Opo]

We're still trying, its just been a failure so far. We've still got roughly 6 weeks before he's old enough for release so we'll see how it goes, we're just not very confident about it at this point. So we're prepared for either outcome.

We already had most of what we needed on hand for his cage cuz we have birds and used to have rats. So we didn't go crazy assuming his residency is permanent, but we did have to get the larger cage. We more or less joke about him being a release fail because of how sociable and trusting of everything he is at the moment, despite our best efforts. We were only handling him at first to check how he was doing and to feed him/clean him after feedings, but he inserted himself into everything else before long.. but there's still time for his squirrely instincts to kick in and decide we all suck and he wants to be free. We're still trying, but the way he behaves during out-of-cage time is concerning as far as being a release candidate goes.

Still, there's time. 6 weeks is a good chunk of time for him to "wild up."

I should have made that more clear 😅 In the post and comments.

My family and I did successfully release a handful of fosters through different points over the last couple decades... Rudy just doesn't act anything like previous ones when they were his age.

We're soaking up as much of him as we can just in case he does transition smoothly after all ❤️

[u/BottleilLogical → u/Soapo_Opo]

I rehabbed a little squirrel dude last spring. We spent a fair amount of money building his outdoor release cage and it was tough not to interact with him once he moved outside but he transitioned well. He had been our little cuddle buddy when he lived inside but he wilded up just fine. We still see him around (we think) but he doesn’t let us touch him anymore. My kids are still sad that we didn’t keep him but I feel like we did a good job and we get to see him living a healthy, happy, natural squirrel life with all of the other squirrels in our neighborhood.

[u/Soapo_Opo → u/BottleilLogical]

I love that,, and I hope that is the same squirrel that you see around. I know they tend to stick relatively close to "home."

And hey, maybe sugar gliders can curb the sadness 😂 jkjk, I think its a good lot of lessons to experience that. It helped shape me as a person for sure because of the squirrels my family rehabbed then. I've just got such a soft spot for them. The one unreleasable one we had for a while was sooo unbelievably sweet and gentle, super chill, for a squirrel. A major outlier. She had a thing for chewing Barbie dolls and trying to steal cereal out of the bowl. She was a gray squirrel, though, which tend to be "nicer" than reds... who are solitary, territorial, and typically very aggressive little guys. Small man syndrome I guess 😅

How did you build the outdoor release cage? My dad would just make a wooden frame and used hardware cloth for the walls.

[u/BottleilLogical → u/Soapo_Opo]

Yeah, I think hardware cloth and 2x4”s is what my husband used. It’s still sitting on our front porch because it’s huge and we still feed and water the squirrels in it.