Squirrely

I live in Wyoming. My son lives on the east coast. Therefore I do not get to see him or his wife very often. I am grateful for telephones and the Internet for making it easy for us to keep in contact, but it is still not the same as "in the flesh" visits.

Yesterday I received a photo of my son, that both tickles me and almost brings me to tears from missing him.

I love this picture!

Jeremy rescued this squirrel when it was an abandoned, hungry, cold baby that ran up to him in the parking lot of his store. He and his wife have had it for several years. It used to have the run of their store until some busybody reported it to the "pet police" and they were told it was illegal for them to have a wildlife animal as a pet. They would have to keep it away from the public or it would be confiscated. Of course, if they had not rescued Squirrely he would have died. If the Game and Fish Department confiscates Squirrely, he will be killed or released in a place where he is completely unable to fend for himself. He would either die of starvation or be easy prey for another animal.

So, Squirrely no longer makes public appearances. He can only come out of his back room cage when the store isn't open for business. You can see in this picture how he is bonded to Jeremy and loves being out with him. There are some very strange rules about what can be a pet and what cannot. And what animals can be rescued and what cannot. I am definitely against people keeping large predators such as lions and tigers in private hands. There are many truly dangerous animals being kept in circumstances where they should not be.

But rescuing a healthy little squirrel and saving its life does not seem terrible to me! And the authorities confiscating such an animal to kill it seems like bureaucratic insanity. Yes, we need some rules and common sense in the interaction of humans and animals. But why is it OK to have pet mice and rats, but a squirrel is not considered pet-worthy?

Well, I got off the track a bit there! My only intention when I started this was to share a photo I love and explain how Squirrely came to be a rescued pet.