The story of Wilfred - the Squirrel we rescued and reared! Part 3

He just couldn't get enough! It was also good for him to eat grapes for the water content which meant that we didn't have to give him as much water. The next day we tried some Avocado, which is probably a bit extravagant for a squirrel but he seemed to love this more than the grapes! It was definitely a lot messier than the syringe so we had to make sure we had towels down when we got him out.

After all of this new food it gave him a whole new lease of life and he wanted to jump around all over the place! We knew this time would come but it was quite amazing to see him happy and running around, such a huge change to how we found him! With his sharp claws he was able to cling on and climb up pretty much anything and really took a liking to climbing onto us and sit on our heads! I took full advantage of this to get a funny selfie with little WIlf! He made quite the fetching hat I think!

After we had cleaned little Wilf he decided that Chris's arm made the perfect towel for him to run his bum across! It was so hilarious!! This video is definitely one of my favourites!

He still had his quiet moments which we savored! He still loved to be held and really didn't try and bite us once. The only thing was how sharp his claws were so we had to make sure we had long sleeved jumpers on when we were handling him! It was also then up to him when he wanted to go back into his little cage (cat carrier!). Its pretty hard to catch a squirrel, not sure if anyone had tried, but its tough! Luckily Wilf was really friendly and actually wanted to be held still so we were still managing!

We started giving him a little plate for his food and he loved picking and choosing which bits of avacado to eat. It was so much fun to see him try and eat these pieces of veg and he looked like he was loving it! And also making the most amount of mess as possible!

We were getting on great with little Wilf but knew we had to re-locate him or do something as a month or so after this we were due to go a lot of travelling with work. We really didn't want to have to leave him or re-locate him but really didn't have any option. Its not like asking someone to come and check on your cats while your away, its a squirrel! We didn't have a big enclosure for him to get all the exercise he deserved and only knew that this would get worse as he got older. We didn't have anyone who could come and look after him and give him the attention we had been doing over the last few months. We had considered building an enclosure ourselves but just didn't have the room or time to do it before we went away.

The only other option we could think of was to see whether family would want to take him. Chris's parents are really great with animals and have always loved wildlife and offered to build Wilf an enclosure in one of their sheds. We were so thankful that they wanted to take him and Chris's dad in particular was so excited to take him! We were so sad to know that we weren't going to be able to see him that often but knew it was for the best.

They started to built this amazing enclosure, with tunnels and different rooms for him to enjoy, enough room to jump and move around in. Of course as I have mentioned in other Parts of the story, releasing him into the wild just wouldn't be good for him, he would have got used to having food from humans and not know how to get food for himself. There wasn't much chance for survival for him with that option. Here is a little photo of the enclosure that they built!

We were so impressed and knew that this was going to give Wilf the best chance possible of surviving. So a few weeks after these photos we took him to Chris's parents where he would spend the rest of his time. We had to go away for work so they kindly updated us with all these photographs of him and we were so pleased to see how well he had settled in, clearly getting spoilt too!

After we got back from our travels we wanted to go see Wilf as soon as we could. It had been a good 3 months so we weren't sure if he would recognize us or what the reaction would be! But we were so glad to see him doing well! We had to make sure we were wearing long sleeved clothes as no doubt his claws would be even sharper now! I was eager to get his reaction so as soon as we opened the door he saw Chris and jumped on him straight away, here's the video.

Who knows whether he did recognise us or not but I would like to think that he did and was excited to see us. We have never rescued an animal before and to see it thriving is amazing. We aren't sure how long he will stay here or what will happen to little Wilf long term but we are so glad we have given him a life worth living, he would have sure not survived if we hadn't taken him in and I am glad to see him doing so well. I hope you all have enjoyed seeing his journey!

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- Verity x

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