Naturally Kiawah Magazine Volume 37 | Page 47

Lyla came to me at nine days old — teeny , furless , and slightly alien-esque . Her eyes were still shut tight , and her ears had not even fully developed yet ! I had literally just walked into the Heron Park Nature Center on the morning of October 28 , 2015 , when a man approached me , holding a dirty paper towel at arm ’ s length and asked me a most unexpected question , “ Do you take squirrels ?” He said he had found a nest while cleaning his chimney flue . The nest was destroyed during the cleaning , and the other two babies were dead , but he thought this one might be alive .
When I looked inside , I found a little pink baby , about the size of my thumb . I thought she was dead as well , but she made a few high-pitched cries , and I quickly changed my mind . I contacted a rehabber , but was told that given how young she was , she most likely wasn ’ t going to make it . Furthermore , they did not have the resources to take her if she was not going to live . Knowing that I could not return her to her nest , and also knowing that I could never live with myself if I were to just leave her out in the woods to die , I thought I would give it a try .
I bottle fed her every three hours for the next few weeks ,
and slowly watched her grow : first , baby hairs , then nails , then teeth . At four and a half weeks she opened her eyes and saw me for the first time , and it was literally love at first sight . After that , it was a whirlwind : she learned to stand , to walk , to jump , to climb , to eat solid food . We celebrated her first birthday on October 19 , 2016 , and are now fast approaching her half birthday this year .
Life with Lyla is certainly never boring . Caring for her is somewhat akin to taking care of a puppy ... if your puppy could climb you and enjoyed sitting on your head ! She ’ s comfortable around certain people she knows and territorial around others . Sometimes she ’ s aloof and cat-like , but most of the time she ’ s very sweet with me .
Let it be known : I do NOT condone having a squirrel as a pet . They are wild animals , and although she is really cute and sweet with me , I would never purposely take a baby squirrel ( or any wild animal ) from its natural habitat , nor should you . NK
You can follow Lyla ’ s adventures through her Instagram account , @ living _ the _ squirrel _ life , or through our blog ( which I ’ m terrible at updating ), www . livingthesquirrellife . wordpress . com .
WINTER / SPRING 2017 • VOLUME 37
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