Saturday, October 8, 2016

Introducing.....

 I have been wanting to write this post for SO LONG!!!!!!!!!  The reason I've waited for over a month was to make sure the newest member of the family was going to survive infancy.....  meet Jack!


Watch this video, you HAVE to watch it.  Don't worry it's short.


Isn't he precious??  Video was August 30th, only four days after finding him.

On the morning of August 26 we heard a huge crash and went outside to find that a dead tree had finally fallen.  This tree had been dying for years, the limbs all dropped off, then the top fell out, but the trunk always held on.  Finally after years it came crashing down (on a perfectly calm day with no wind lol).  Jackal (my dog) was acting fascinated with something...

When hubby went to investigate he found Jackal licking a baby squirrel!!!!!  He had fur, but his eyes weren't even open yet. The above pictures were taken on August 30th.  Jackal was protecting him from the cats who were closing in.  We gathered up the baby squirrel and plopped him in a box full of blankets.  The most important thing was to get him warmed up.  We weren't sure how old he was, but going by the fur and his teeth we guessed around a month.  It can be hard to raise squirrels, which is why I waited to post.  I was trying not to get attached at first.  That's hard though when he's so cute!

We named him Jack after the squirrel my dad had when he was a kid.  I know, we now have a Jackal and a Jack, but it works okay.  :)


The above picture was taken August 29th, the day after we found him.  The reason the picture is red is because we had him under a heat lamp.  We had to keep him warm, feed him Esbilac puppy formula five times a day and make sure to stimulate him to go potty.  So obviously it was very overwhelming!  My mom was helping, but I was still going home everyday for lunch to feed him.

Watch this video of me feeding Jack his formula.  This was after we moved up to a 3cc syringe.  We started with a 1cc syringe.


Isn't he adorable.  It was so fun watching him grow and learn to do things.  The first day he started gripping the syringe with his adorable little paws like in the video, was so awesome!

His eyes opened on August 28th, shortly after we found him, so we knew he was approximately four weeks old.  We have given him an estimated birth date of July 31st.

This was his first time sitting up!!!!!

Eventually he started sitting up.  It was so cute!  Watching him learn to sit up and to hold food in his hands...... I just can't even describe it.  I'll start talking about weaning and outdoor forays in another post.  For now I'll leave a pictures of his first time outside...

CUTE!

It has been a whirlwind of a month and caring for Jack has been all consuming, but it is so worth it because he is awesome.  Trust me there will be LOTS more updates on this guy.  :D

16 comments:

  1. Jack is adorable. It looks like you've done everything right and he is thriving. Very cute videos too. Good luck with him!

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    1. Thank you! I can't wait to share the pictures of him and the stories from today, but it will have to wait until I get caught up. :D

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  2. Dang, girl. You've bitten off a lot in the animal department, but it doesn't seem to be more than you can chew. That's some serious cuteness you're deal with.

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    1. It has definitely been a huge learning curve! Squirrel body language is different from anything I've ever dealt with before. :D He's awesome though.

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  3. Jack is adorable!

    And in case you've never read it, here is a link to the famous beet pulp and the squirrel story. It is a must read.

    http://www.dressage.com/humor/2001/0330beet.htm

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    1. That is awesome! Thank you for sharing it. I can totally see that happening, just from watching how Jack is. :D

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  4. Wow, he is cute. I adore squirrels. Is he a red squirrel? I'm not sure if they have them around you. They are my favorite kind. Looking forward to hearing all about him.

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    1. He's a gray squirrel. I love red squirrels too, but we don't have them here. I don't think they can survive with gray squirrels.

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  5. Oh my gosh so adorable!!!
    I must follow this blog (as well as the horses) to keep up...actually I'm not sure why I'm not already following this blog 😶

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    1. Hehe, I don't know how you haven't been following this one either. I thought you knew about it lol. :)

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  6. Adorable!! I had 2 squirrels years ago; Sweetie Pie and Elwood, best little critters. :-) Looking forward to watching him grow. <3

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    1. Really? That's awesome! We should share squirrel stories sometime. :D

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  7. How cute! Looking forward to pics of him growing up :)

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    1. Yeah I really need to get on posting those lol. I have way more videos than I do photos though and videos are soooooo time consuming!

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  8. Oh how fun! I had a pet squirrel as a kid and he was so much fun!

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    1. Really? That's awesome. I didn't know so many people had pet squirrels! My dad had one and my husband's cousin had one, but that's the only people I know that did. I'd love to hear some of your squirrel stories. He is so much fun!

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