Squirble was orphaned last Fall and found by the homeowners when she came down the tree crying for help, alone and hungry.
She was about 4-5 weeks old, and lucky, because her eyes had been open only a few days.
If she had been orphaned before that, she probably would not have survived.
An adult squirrel believed to be her mother was dead on the ground only a few feet away.
I received Squirble on Oct 3rd and raised her until Dec 3rd, when she accidentally escaped when visiting her old home to prepare for soft-release.
She ran out of sight and disappeared.
For most of the winter I didn't know if she had survived.
But I reunited with her again on March 3rd, exactly 3 months later, when I stopped by on a whim to look around, called her name, and she recognized me and came closer and spent several minutes just a few feet away from me.
She showed me where she was living, and on a subsequent visit I put a camera on a long pole to inspect her home, to see how she's been living and surviving the winter.
To my shock, I discovered that my little girl, who is only 6 months old herself, has 4-5 week old babies now of her own!
😇 Squirrels don't normally mature and have babies until they are 10 months, but this obviously isn't a hard number.
She's very lucky that she carried them to term though, in the winter of all times, and everyone survived.
There are two confirmed babies with her, which is typical for a first time squirrel mom.
They usually have only 1 or 2 their first time.
If you turn the volume up and listen closely, at about the :50 mark you can hear the babies grunting and fussing at each other for who gets best position.
😄