The Allure of Baby Squirrels

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For Wakeman, the worst part of animal rescue is “when you’re learning and you accidentally kill an animal.” It happened for her when a more experienced rehabber advised her to give a baby squirrel “different food, like banana or avocado, to prevent cage boredom. I thought, because I cut everything else up, I [should also] cut the banana up—and this poor little baby female choked on the banana!” Wakeman felt horrible. Now, she says, she feels she owes it to other squirrels to heal and take care of them. “Once you hold a baby anything, you have a different idea of them,” she explains. At work, her colleagues “have their pictures of their kids … I have this [photo of a] squirrel.”

Wakeman says she has had a lot more success reuniting wildlife moms with their babies since FOW switched from pagers to more reliable cell phones. The Internet has also made it easier for people to find FOW—sometimes too easy. Some people who discover friendsofwildlife.net  “don’t even look at where you’re at!” she says. “This lady got us, said she had this squirrel and it had a lot of maggots in the ears. I said, ‘I’m sorry to tell you this, but it needs to be euthanized. It is suffering.’ Then it dawned on me—it was March! A baby, with fur?”

“Where are you calling from?” Wakeman asked. “She said, ‘Fresno.’ I said, ‘California?’ She said, ‘Yeah!’”