On Saturday the 14th July 2007, two red squirrel kittens were brought into The Sanctuary by a local protection group. Their drey had been found in a holly bush broken in half and the 2 young squirrels found lying on the ground - there was no sign of their mother.  They were both very young (we estimated 14-16 days old) and one had a broken leg, so we were not sure how they would fair, but they would be given the very best chance we could give them.   

Because they were so young and needed round the clock attention and the Sanctuary owners had left that morning for a holiday, I decided to take them home with me to my own home.  My name is Eileen - I am the webmaster and the Education Officer at The Sanctuary.  This was a complete learning curve for me, as up to this point my experience had mainly been helping my queens to raise their kittens.  However, it was a wonderful experience and so I have decided to remove the squirrel information from our Intensive Care page and give it a page of its own, for anyone who is interested in their development.

I took photographs every week (as I did with my feline kittens) and there now follows a pictorial diary of the development of red squirrels from the age of 2 weeks.  Click on any photograph to see an enlargement for more detail.  I also took many mpegs with my digital camera which illustrates a lot of their more amusing behaviour and which I have uploaded onto the "You Tube" website and provided links here.  The later ones were taken with a different camera which appear to be slightly 'blurry' because the Windows Media programme it uses has a smaller screen than "You Tube" uses and which creates the blurring.

When the squirrels were brought in they were quite dehydrated - you can see that their skin is showing a lot of wrinkles on these photographs.  Of course wrinkles on their own do not mean dehydration, but on pinching the skin at the back of the neck, the skin 'tented', which means it didn't return to its original flat shape, so in this case it did confirm it. The owners of the garden where the drey had been found had no idea how long they had been lying in the garden, so my first priority was to rehydrate the kittens.  I began feeding them an electrolyte solution first and then after they were rehydrated a mixture of goats milk, vitamins and pro-biotic yoghurt.   I fed them every 3 hours, day and night from a 1ml syringe with a cat orphan teat on the end.  I also weighed them every evening to check on weight gain and loss - when they arrived they weighed 38g & 40g respectively.  I firmly believe that if there is a problem it usually manifests itself first in weight loss and this can be seen sooner on a scale than with the human eye.  Initially they lost weight, but this was not surprising.    It was 2 days before either of them showed any sign of a weight gain, but eventually they did and after 4 days they were both weighing in at 42g.  So some small progress.  Also of course, as small mammals without mothers they need to be 'toileted' after every feed, which in the beginning took quite a bit of time, especially to stimulate the solid waste!

At this point I must say that my husband, Barry, joined in with the same enthusiasm as me and he got up with me twice a night to feed them, even though he had to get up at 6 in the morning to go to work.   We decided it would be easier to name them, even though we did not want to see them as 'family pets' and decided on Jake for the kitten with the broken leg (after Rolf Harris' "Jake the Peg" song) and Fidget for the other one, because he was never still, so he quickly earned the nickname "Fidget Breeches".  Jake was the smaller of the 2 kittens.  

Week commencing 21st July - 3 wks old

The squirrels are still being fed 3 hourly, day and night, are beginning to make real progress and finally being to show a steady weight gain.  Jake weighed 52g and  Fidget weighed 54g by the end of the week.  The broken leg appears to be healing well, although we are still not sure how much movement Jake will have in both the foot and the leg, once it has healed.   Initially he appeared to be able to move the leg, but not the foot or toes.

It is interesting to see that even though Jake has a broken leg, he has put on more weight than Fidget.

Their lower incisors erupted this week, confirming my suspicions that they were about 14-16 days old when they were brought in.

Week commencing 28th July - 4 wks old

During this week we moved them onto 4 hourly feeds and began to add Farley's Rusks to their milk to thicken it slightly. The photograph on the left is of Jake weighing in on the Sunday evening and showing a good weight of 62g.  On the right is Fidget displaying a little plump tummy!

 By the middle of this week Jake weighed 65g and Fidget 64g.  One of Fidget's eyes began to open on the 29th and by the following day both were open and one of Jake's was too.   By the 31st both kittens had both eyes fully open, again confirming our assessment that they were about 12-14 days old when they were brought it.  On the 1st August, we noticed that they were beginning to be able to control their tails, lifting them up towards their back in the classic 'pose'.

I can also see their tails beginning to 'brush' just a little, but bearing no resemblance to the tails they will eventually have.  In fact, as yet, they bear little resemblance to the beautiful animals they will grow into.   Now that their eyes are opening they are becoming more adventurous and active.

Week commencing 4th August - 5 wks old

5 weeks old now and growing steadily.  They are both weighing in at 85g, so now they have finally doubled their weight from when they came into The Sanctuary.    They are now extremely active and flying all over the bedroom where they are living quite happily in my kitten pen.  We are still toileting, although it is a little easier now and they almost need a bath after feeding because they end up in such a mess with the milk and Farleys!

Jake's leg has now thoroughly healed and he is using the leg, the foot and all his toes in exactly the same manner as his  'good' leg, so now we can't tell them apart by looking at legs and have to look at colour instead because Jake is very slightly darker along the back than Fidget

I thought long and hard about the sensibility of introducing them to my cats, but they were so active and could escape and be killed by one of them, so I decided that the cats should be allowed to be near them in order that they would learn to see them as members of our family.   As all but one of our cats sleep in our bedroom, they have been watching the squirrels in the pen and being fed by us since they arrived, so introducing them to the cats was a very simple matter.   Here is Harry, one of my neuters being investigated by one of the kittens.  They bear a striking resemblance (in fact my breeding prefix is "Feorag" which is gaelic for red squirrel, because my Somali cats remind me so much of squirrels with their agouti coats, black ear tips and bushy tails).

As they get older, they are becoming very vocal.  Everything they do is accompanied by constant small grunts, which sound so funny!

Week commencing 11th August - 6 wks old

Jake is in the wars again!  On Friday I noticed the left hand side of his face had begun to swell with all the indications of an abscess.   So we had a trip to the vet, where an abscess was confirmed and he was put onto anti-biotic.  However, the swelling continued to grow to such an extent that it distorted all his face, as you can clearly see on the photograph to the left. 

 Eventually on the Sunday my husband and I decided that the only option was to lance it resulting in a large amount of solid pus having to be expressed!  Not a pleasant job.   The following day, however, it was back again and just as big, so we had to do it again! 

Fortunately, by then the anti-biotic was obviously kicking in and it slowly decreased in size.  However, it amazed me how he lay so quietly in my husband's hand while I squeezed, applying such an amount of pressure it must have been painful.  Here he is on the right sleeping off the after effects of the 'treatment'!  What did amaze me is that he didn't appear to be particular 'off form'.  He is slightly quieter than Fidget anyway, but he didn't appear to go off his food and was still running around.

Fidget on the other hand continues to enjoy rude health and absolute and total activity as long as his eyes are open!  Here he is on the left of the photograph while Jake carried on sleeping.

This week their upper incisors are now coming through and so we began to introduce solid food, starting them off on Avocado - a strange choice it may seem, but it's nutritious and soft and they obviously approved, judging by this photograph of Fidget tucking in!   We have also begun teaching them how to lap up their Farley's Rusks, although looking at Fidget tucking in you'll appreciate that they didn't need much teaching! 

They are also learning all sorts of trick.  For instance they are now aware when they are on our shoulders and we are going to put them back in their pen and they head for the centre of our backs where we cannot reach them!  So getting them in the pen is starting to become more difficult!   

 Week commencing 18th August - 7 wks old

7 weeks old today and now weighing in at just over 100g.  We are no longer toileting (thank goodness) or getting up through the night to feed them (even bigger thank goodnesses).  It has been a tough 5 weeks getting up through the night, but we've made it.  Now they are fed last thing at night and first thing in the morning and every 4 hours in between.   They are enjoying their avocado and of course still loving their Farleys Rusks in milk, which they are now lapping happily from a saucer instead of sucking from a syringe.

They are now really beginning to climb as witnessed here by Fidget on top of the bedroom curtains!   

This link will take you to a little mpeg of them climbing on my husband!

Today my husband brought home a new box (the other was smaller and beginning to become a little 'damp') and they had great fun exploring their new home.  Fidget is on the left and Jake is on the right.  You can still clearly see the swelling (and hair loss) on Jake's face where he had the abscess, which has not yet gone down - this makes identification very easy, but what we are going to do when his face returns back to  normal I  really don't know, as they are definitely 2 peas in a pod!    The third photograph illustrates their puzzlement at seeing themselves in my wardrobe mirrors.

 Week commencing 25th August - 8 wks old

The squirrels are now 8 weeks old and weaned sufficiently not to require 'bottle feeding', so they are going outside during the day, when we are at home, to 'acclimatise' to the outside weather.  

Already they are beginning to exhibit typical squirrel behaviour.  If we give them something to eat and they don't want to eat it immediately, they simply 'have' to bury it!    The fact that they usually choose to bury it down the back of our necks, pockets, sleeves and worse of all in our hair causes us great amusement, although I'm not sure how much I appreciate having a piece of damp baby sweet corn stuck in my neck!  Also Jake is now becoming obsessed with being down my jumper!  He runs about with great enthusiasm and then heads for my shoulder and from there is determined to get down inside my t-shirt or jumper.

On Thursday I realised that my decision to introduce the cats to the squirrels was a wise one!  While I was out at work I did not realise that I had not locked the door to the kitten pen.  The pen (being designed as a kitten pen, has both a top opening door to allow the queen to jump out while the kittens are still too young to jump and a side door, to allow the kittens to come out to play when they are older).  By now the squirrels have worked out that when we actually take hold of them they are going to be locked up for the day and consequently, when we put the first one in the top door and then try to put the other one in, the first one jumps out!   So it is a test of wills getting them both into the pen!  The best method is to put the first one in the top door and while he's hanging from the wire, waiting for us to re-open the door, put the second one in the side door.  This morning for some reason the first squirrel went straight into his bed when I put him in and so I was able to put the second one through the top door. I then bolted the top door and went off to work, unknowingly leaving the bottom door unlocked!

I came in from work and went straight upstairs to discover the side door wide open!   Our bedroom is always open for the cats, as is the bathroom (for litter tray), the kitchen (for food) and the utility room (for more litter trays).  The squirrels had had the run of the house all day along with 5 of my 6 cats (1 prefers to live in the living room!).   I admit to being scared to go into the bedroom because the cats had never been left alone with them before, always with us there to supervise and I did panic that there would be 2 dead squirrels on the floor.   I went into the bedroom and called and heard the grunt grunt of a reply and out came one of them from somewhere to say hello.  There was no sign of the other one and my panic increased, then I heard him grunting from inside his little cardboard box bed.  It looked like one of the cats had gone into the pen and either stood or pawed at the box because the lid was pushed down causing it to cover most of the entrance hole and the squirrel was having a job getting out.   There is no question that they had not spent the day in the bedroom, as there was squirrel poop on top of one of the cats' scratch poles in the hall, on the kitchen windowsill and the hall windowsill, so they'd really been out and about during my absence.  To say I was relieved would be an understatement and to say I was proud of my cats would be a further and greater understatement.  I firmly believe that if I had not made the decision to allow the cats close to the squirrels and this had happened, they would have caught and killed the squirrels, as they are great hunters, although they are not allowed to roam free, so have little practice.

They are still being very vocal, grunting away constantly as they rush around like whirling dervishes.  Of course when we try to put them back into their pen or stop them doing something they are enjoying doing, the grunting escalates into a series of squeaking and positively screaming at us to stop and leave them alone!

2 weeks commencing 1st September - 9 & 10 wks old

The Squirrels are loving their time outside, but we still brought them in each evening for another week, just to make sure they had adapted to the cooler temperatures before they were left outside out all the time.  However, by the second week we could see their coats getting longer and thicker and decided it was time to let them stay outside permanently, although we still bring them inside for an hour or so every day to 'let off steam' as the 3 tier rat cage they're in is quite small and it is important that they 'muscle up' and get lots of experience of climbing and jumping - which they are doing in my utility room and kitchen. 

My friend has a cobnut tree in her garden and we collected a bag of cobnuts for them.  They were so excited when I brought them home they actually tore open the bag and helped themselves!.  For the moment we still have to crack the nuts slightly to allow them to be able to get through the shell, but it won't be for long!

The 'squirreling away" of food supplies is increasing and we seldom remove an article of clothing without a piece of something falling out!   One night this week I sat down and felt something really hard digging into my bottom.  I looked at the chair and couldn't see anything, then the penny dropped.  One of the squirrels had buried a whole cobnut in its shell down the back of my neck - this had obviously worked its way down my back, down my trousers and lodged itself in my knickers!!!

On the weekend of the 5th September I was in Surrey and I visited the British Wildlife Centre, where they have quite a few red squirrels which they keep in a captive breeding programme.   There was a keeper talk, which I was keen to attend and the young man giving this talk had a hand reared young red squirrel with him.  The litter had been abandoned by their mother and he had hand reared them.  During the entirety of this talk, which lasted about 20 mins, this little 3½ months old female red squirrel sat on the palm of his hand and never moved.  I was absolutely amazed at this behaviour, when I compared it with my own, who were at that stage only 9 weeks old and by then were running around and about me as if I was a tree and certainly would never sit still in the palm of my hand for a nano-second!  

Take this link to an mpeg which illustrates exactly what I mean!  I did find myself wondering if this might be the difference between a hand-reared captive-bred squirrel and a hand-reared wild squirrel?

2 weeks commencing 15th September -11 & 12 wks old

They are now 11 weeks old and we have thought long and hard about the best way to release them.  We feel that if we release them now, they are still young and vulnerable and they won't have a lot of time left to cache their winter food supply.  If we wait another few weeks until they are strong, they will have even less.  Also they are still relatively tame at the moment so we feel they need time to get used to not being around humans (and cats), but to still be protected.  So we have decided to go for a "soft release" in the spring and are now looking for someone in a red squirrel area who will allow us to put a pen in their garden to over-winter them and then we will release them in the spring.  That way they will have the protection of a pen and a supply of food, but be outside with absolute minimum human contact and this way we think they will very quickly regress back to the wild animals they are and lose their trust of humans.

I think they will release successfully, in no small part because there are two of them, which means they have each other to 'play' with and copy and are behaving like squirrels and not like hand reared pets.  Their speed and climbing skills are awesome to watch and they are incredible time wasters!!   My work is falling further and further behind, because I just sit watching and being entertained by them when they come indoors for their daily exercise.

Although I'm not sure my skin will ever fully recover. I've had to resort to gaberdene or denim trousers and a big sloppy long sleeved fleecy jumper to stop them scratching me.  My arms, hands, back, legs and chest look like I've been self harming because they're criss crossed with scratches in various stages of repair!  

Take this link to a typical example of how much fun and mischief they get into every evening when they come indoors.   

Alternatively, here is a link to one of them really enjoying a red grape while his brother tries to steal it!  

2 weeks commencing 29th September - 13 & 14 wks old

Great news indeed we've managed to find someone whose garden backs onto a wood and steep river bank and which has visiting red squirrels, who have agreed to let us put a pen in that garden to over-winter the squirrels, with a view to a 'soft' release in the spring.   There are hazel and beech trees in these woods and a clear route up the river to the heart of Northumberland and further coniferous forests.  We really do not think we could have found anywhere much better for supplying them with their natural foods.

Hopefully with minimum human attention and intervention and being away from my husband and I (who they see as their 'parents') and our cats (who they see as their 'siblings') they will grow 'wilder' over the winter and fair better when they are released.  

So now it's 'all systems go' as we raise the money to buy the necessary materials to build a pen for them and then, of course, Barry will have to set to and build it!

Hopefully, they will spend the winter in their pen and see visiting reds to the garden, then in spring we'll open the pen up and let them go when they're ready, but at least with a soft release, if they struggle to find natural food, they will be aware that they can come back to 'home' and find a food supply while they learn to forage and find food themselves.

They're still mad as hatters and totally hyper - never still, but I think that is very typical squirrel behaviour, so I'm happy to see that.

Take this link to watch Jake quietly enjoying a hazelnut, which now presents no challenge whatsoever while Fidget rushes around my utility room as if it's an assault course, quietly grunting away to himself!

2 weeks commencing 20th October - 16 & 17 wks old

They are 16 weeks old  today and I was really hoping that they would have left for their new pen by now, but it will take a while to raise the money and buy the equipment and then build the pen, so we must be patient.  However, I am so enjoying having them that it isn't a hardship for me, I just felt it would be better for them to be away from us sooner.

Chewing is now becoming a problem!  They've chewed the polystyrene tiles on my utility room ceiling, chewed the grout and plaster in the tiles around the utility room sink, eaten their way into a couple of unopened cereal boxes which I store on top of the wall units in the utility room and there are bites out of my bananas, and other fruit in the fruit & vegetable basket!  They've also chewed some of the doorknobs on my kitchen units and along the fascia at the top of the units.  One day I even found one of them chewing the enamel off the side of the oven unit, but of course that's what squirrels do and even though they have a pen full of wooden branches to chew, everything is fair game to them!  

If I am trying to stop them doing something naughty, or if I attempt to catch them without some protection like a towel they do bite me.   Everything I am reading tells me that they can bite down to the bone and when I see them opening a cobnut or a walnut I can well believe this, but if they bite me they seldom don't even break the skin, although they have done on one or two occasions.

We are still bringing them in every evening to have a 'run' for an hour or so, usually as soon as I come home.  They love this time and explore and climb, rushing around frantically.  Jake is usually the one who tires first (Fidget Breeches was well names after all, as he is never still) and when this happens, he heads straight for my jumper.  He has always been obsessed with being down t-shirts and jumpers, but when he's tired, he is determined to get down a jumper or up a sleeve to have a nap and is equally determined to stay there and not come out!

Take this link for an mpeg to see exactly what I mean!   

Take this link for my second attempt.  You will see from these mpegs the range of sounds they make, from grunting to little squeals of objections!

2 weeks commencing 3rd November - 18 & 19 wks old

At the moment we're bringing the cage in every evening, because, now and then, we're having fireworks going off.  They rush around the kitchen and utility room like whirling dervishes, but as soon as it gets dark, they take themselves off to bed.   Fidget usually goes onto my sponge gardening kneeling pad on top of the wall units in the utility room and Jake usually goes into my oven glove hanging from one of the kitchen unit doorknobs - alternatively one or both of them ends up in my peg bag hanging on the utility room wall.

One night I left them playing and when I went back Jake had put himself to bed, opened the lid and looked in, he'd helped himself to a piece of fur fabric which was on top of the freezer after having been washed! They were the little 8" or so squares that I used to put over them when they were tiny and sleeping on vetbed in their little cardboard box. He'd obviously remembered what they were and had carried two back into his box, shoved them through the hole and he was totally covered by them.

I can now see their ear tips growing and the tails are becoming really bushy.   They are also becoming adept thieves and I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked into the kitchen one evening to find one of them had opened a bag of muffins and was trying to walk off with one!

3 weeks commencing 17th November -20, 21 & 22 wks old

Today I walked into the utility room to find one of the squirrels (not sure which one) frantically rushing around with another piece of fur fabric in his mouth.  I'd no idea where he was going with it, but out came the camera and I took this little mpeg of his attempts to nest build.  It was obvious that his idea was to take it into my peg bag to build a little nest.  Listen to the grunts of effort and frustration as he struggles to keep the piece of fabric under control while trying to jump all over the furniture in the utility room.  Eventually I decided to encourage him to put the fabric in his nest box (take this link), by which time the other squirrel had come along and was trying to steal it, much to his further frustration.  Eventually, however, he succeeded in putting in his nest box (take this link)

One of my friends gave me a windowsill Basil plant which she had been nurturing for a while.  Without thinking I put it on my kitchen windowsill and then brought the squirrels in for their 'exercise'.  I turned my back for a second and this is what I found (take this link)   He was determined he was going to bury that hazelnut inside that tiny plant pot, come what may!  Thank goodness my friend shares my passion for wildlife and laughed so much when she saw the mpeg!

The pen is nearing completion and will soon be erected on site.  The owners of the garden have told us that they have 3 young red squirrels visiting their garden for food, so we are quite excited about this.   During this 3 weeks their tails have doubled in width and their ear tips have doubled in length!   Also during the last month or so (in fact since we began weaning them - after the avocado of course!) we have endeavoured to give them as natural a diet as they will find in the wild, so we have collected cobnuts, pine cones, hawthorn berries, rose hips etc and given them pine nuts, walnuts, dried mushrooms, etc which they have both enjoyed.   We have also introduced and tried to teach them how to use a squirrel feeder, as we will be installing one in their pen so that the owners of the garden where they will be will not have to feed them every day.  

Will I miss them?   Of course I will!  They've been part of my life for almost 5 months - that's actually a lot longer than I ever anticipated the day I brought them home!  I don't know what I'll do with all my spare time - except catch up on the myriad jobs I should have been doing for the last 5 months while I spent all my spare time squirrel observing. , but it has truly been a wonderful experience, one which I will never regret.  

However, the anticipation of the day when I can open that pen door and watch them run off to a hopefully long, healthy, natural life will make it all worthwhile.

It has been truly fascinating to watch them develop and a richly rewarding experience!  These photographs will be the last ones I take here at my home.

Saturday 8th December

Well, my little feorags have now left us for their new home.  The pen was finally erected and suitably furnished with a network of branches and twigs, platforms to sit on, tree stumps with holes drilled out to bury food etc and Barry and I took them up this morning.   I'm certain that they loved all the extra freedom the pen is giving them in space and I'm certain they'll thrive up there as well as they have here!  

And now my house is so quiet - there are no little red, bushy tailed critters running frantically around like a pair of whirling dervishes, grunting frantically and I have so much extra time I don't quite know what to do with it!

What am I missing?  Well I'm missing finding hazelnuts and other unmentionable things in every corner of my kitchen and utility room.  I'm also finding them in my box of tea bags on the kitchen shelf (which they chewed open to get into) and under every piece of fabric there is!  But mainly I'm missing their little soft fluffy bodies snuggling in when they get tired and I so miss Jake desperately trying to force his way down inside my jumper and settling down for a quick nap.     

What am I not missing?   Well, I'm certainly not missing scratches all over my arms, legs and body, damp baby sweet corn or mushrooms down the back of my neck, hazelnuts in my knickers, being leapt on from the top of the kitchen door (gave me many a fright and some degree of pain!) - no I don't miss that aspect of squirrel rearing, but my word I miss them!!

We will of course visit them to make sure everything is going OK, but the main object is to remove human intervention as much as possible to teach them to be 'wild'!   To this end they've been given a squirrel feeder full of food which should last them 3 or more weeks and a water bottle for water which should keep them going for 5-7 days (unless of course it freezes) and the owners of the house whose garden they are in have been told to put in fresh food (such as fruit, berries etc) every other day to avoid too much contact.

My husband called up 2 weeks later to carry out a modification to the pen and he was pleased to note that the squirrels kept away from him for about 15-20 minutes, before they jumped onto him.   Had this happened in our own home, they would have jumped onto  him as soon as he walked into the room, so this augers well for their future.

These photographs taken when they were released in their new pen are a little blurred, but they were so excited at the amount of space they had, they just never stayed still long enough for my compact camera to properly focus on them.   The sisal rope (a remnant left over from a cat scratch pole) was a brilliant idea and as you can see proved to be the focal point of their exploration!

Thursday 27th December

I called up today to see how the squirrels were getting on and they looked absolutely wonderful!   Their coats are even thicker and longer, their tails are even bushier and their ear tips are enormous!  

I deliberately did not go into the pen, because I did not want to encourage them to come to me, but I must confess there was a small part of me that registered disappointment when I walked up to the pen that they showed no recognition of me at all and rushed around in their busy way, but did not come over to the wire where I was shouting "mummy".   However, joking aside I was more than delighted at this behaviour, because it confirmed to me that we had made the right choice in what we had decided.  They are forgetting us and losing their trust of humans and this can only be good for them in the future.

I did manage to take a few photographs, but again they moved so fast and I was taking them through the wires of the cage, so they are not wonderfully in focus, but they are good enough to see how they are developing.

Thursday 2nd February

Today we went to visit to make sure everything was OK, top up the feeders and give the pen another clean out.  We also had to replace the sisal rope which they had chewed until it snapped!  I went into the pen to try and get some photographs of them without the bars getting in the way and Jake came straight to me. Within minutes he was up my coat and burying nuts down the back of my neck!   Fidget of course was flying around the pen like an athlete, swinging on the ropes etc, but he did eventually come over once he'd calmed down!  Apart from my own personal gratification that Jake appeared  remembered me I was a bit apprehensive that this meant they were still too humanised, because I thought they should be wary of people by now.  However, this assumption was corrected when the owner of the garden came outside and he instantly jumped off me onto the wire in "alert" mode, obviously viewing her with concern.  She was surprised when she saw him on me, because she said they never go anywhere near her when she feeds them, so that's great news.  I wondered if it was because they recognised and remembered me, or whether it was just because she doesn't actually go into the pen, but then again he was at the front of the pen watching Barry closely as he made an adjustment to the outer door and when I arrived and put my finger in the bars he was sniffing it with gusto, as if he recognised the scent??

Saturday 18th April - Release Day arrives at last !!!

Well after another couple of visits to top up feeders and clean up the pen, D-Day finally arrived - it was time to make the biggest gamble of our lives and release them into the wild and what a bitter sweet day it was for Barry and I.

The owners of the house were there, along with their neighbours who have shared the care of these squirrels, my friend and her son in the village who raised so much money towards the cost of the pen by holding a coffee morning, Sally Watson from Ponteland Red Squirrels, who brought the squirrels to The Sanctuary in the first place and our local ITV reporter who had requested to be there when they were finally released as a follow-up to their original story of when they first came into the Sanctuary.  I did warn him that squirrels don't read the text books and it was unlikely that they would get any film of them coming out of the pen, but they decided they still wanted to be there, just in case!!  It was comforting to have Sally tell me that our squirrels were much plumper (probably a polite way of saying fat!) than the wild reds visiting her garden, but at least that meant they were being released in optimum health, which could only auger well for their future.

Here they are watching what is going on and wondering why there are so many people watching them!  And look at those wonderful ear tufts they've grown over the winter!

We had decided earlier, as an extra means of protection, that we would remove the outer door of the pen, but leave the inner door remaining and remove the feeding hatch door as an entry and exit in the hope that any large predator that might possibly be chasing them would find it more difficult to get through the small feeding hatch.  In preparation for this the feeding hatch door had been removed a week earlier to allow the squirrels access into the 'safety zone' and to get them used to going in and out of the hatch.

Finally the TV cameraman had his camera set up and Barry then removed the outer pen door and we all stood back and waited with baited breath ..................... and waited ......................... and waited !!!

Eventually a little head appeared in the feeding hatch, followed by the body, but a lot of hesitancy.  After an hour of patiently waiting I think the reporters were beginning to realise that they weren't going to get the footage they wanted and as it was a freezing cold windy day, they decided to give up and leave.  As you can see their camera was set up quite near to the pen so that they could get good film, but of course these are inherently wild animals and although they have a trust of Barry and I, they also have a natural instinct to be wary of large 'animals'  and Barry and I were pretty certain that they weren't going to come out until things were quieter.

After they left  Barry went into the pen to clean up a little and 'talk' to them to see if he could encourage them to take their first tentative steps outside and Fidget was straight onto his head.  The mystery of the broken sisal rope was solved when Barry looked into their nest box - there was a perfect circle of chewed sisal rope forming their nest in among the hay!!! 

I was standing in the open doorway and Fidget then ran to me, up onto my shoulder and down again to examine the floor of the 'safety hatch' area.

Then he made his bid for freedom, ran over my foot and headed off to the other side of the garden.  He sniffed around for a few seconds and then, as if overawed by the whole experience, rushed back and ran up onto my shoulder!

After a quick examination of my shoulder and a bit of reassurance, he ran to the fence behind the pen and vanished over the top of it into the garden next door and was gone!

Jake in the meantime rushed to the top of the pen as if to try and see where Fidget had gone, but made no attempt himself to come out of the pen and nothing we could do would encourage him.  Obviously we were not prepared to force him to go out - this was something he had to do in his own time when he was ready.

The remaining 'audience' then speculated as to where Fidget had gone, whether he was coming  back and what Jake was going to do about it. 

Then after about 3 minutes (which felt like a lifetime to me!) Fidget came back and lay on the top of the pen, as if to ask Jake why was he not coming out and Jake was sitting below him on a branch as if asking  him how he had got up there, but he still showed no signs of coming out.  Eventually after about 10 minutes, Fidget took off again and this time he didn't come back. 

Despite all our endeavours Jake (who was always the least adventurous and quieter kitten) would not come out of the pen, but sat looking at the roof to see if Fidget was coming back.  Then, sadly, we had to leave.

Ruth, the neighbour of the owners of the garden who had done most of their feeding and care, rang us later to say that Jake had remained in the pen.  A few days later she rang again to say that he had finally gone.  Apparently, he stayed in the pen for the following day, but finally he got up the nerve to face the outside world and was off.

They had been visited regularly by the local wild squirrels, but one in particular had paid them a lot of attention spending a lot of time on top of the pen nose to nose with them.  This squirrel was quite a bit smaller than them and Ruth and her husband thought that it was very possibly a female. 

Ruth keeps us updated on their progress and since their release, they have returned to the pen every morning to feed.  She began throwing their food onto the top of the pen to encourage them to feed outside and she told me that they arrive every morning, the three of them.   The wild squirrel feeds first, while my two sit back and patiently wait.  Then when he/she is finished feeding, one of ours eats his fill (almost certainly Fidget as he was always the more dominant brother) and when he has finished, Jake eats his fill.  Then when he has finished eating all 3 head off for the day.  It would indeed be wonderful to hope that this squirrel is a female and that eventually she will pair up with one of them and produce more red squirrel babies.  However, I hate to say it, but it is more than likely that it will be Fidget she will choose and poor Jake will have to strike out on his own to find his perfect mate!!

Overall this has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life!  To think that they were so tiny that everyone thought they would die and yet now they are free - out in the wild and surviving well.  Even now months after they have left my house I am finding reminders of their existence.   In March I took a box of tea bags from the shelf and there was a hole gnawed in the cardboard and a hazelnut stored inside the box!   Then in July on a rare sunny day, I decided to get out my sun lounger which hangs on the utility room wall - I took it out into the garden, unfolded it and about 6 or 7 hazelnuts rolled out onto the patio.   My heart ached for them and I really just wanted to cry that they had gone, but they are out in the wild living a natural life and that is what is right for them and my overriding emotion is sheer pleasure that this story has a happy ending and the squirrels are living the natural life intended for them.