Our neighbor Joy is a Squirrel Whisperer…. Seriously, she really is.

Well, technically, she is a licensed wildlife rehabilitator who specializes in squirrels and has done so for the past four years. She’s developed a reputation around the area as someone who knows her job, and so far this year she has saved 24 of the 25 squirrels that have come to her.

The squirrels come from arborists, housewives, referrals, vets, and local rehabilitators, among others. Typically, the squirrels come to her when they are only a week or two old, their eyes are still closed and they have no fur. Some have arrived when they were as young as a couple of days old. When their eyes are still closed, they obviously can’t fend at all for themselves, and must be fed every two hours. It turns out there’s a special Squirrel Baby Formula you can buy that is exactly what they need.

As the squirrels get older, their eyes open, and they start to transition from only formula to real squirrel food – Cheerios, fruit, nuts and vegetables and eventually they will be weaned off the formula. When they are around 12-14 weeks old, Joy starts to transition them to an outside “Pre-release” cage that’s on their porch. They get formula twice a day along with solid food in the cage and start to acclimate to outside.

  

After 2-3 weeks in that cage, Joy opens the door to the cage during the daytime. The squirrels eat breakfast, and eventually wander out the door of the cage. There’s a ramp from the cage to a nearby tree and they start to play in the tree. In early evening, they return to the cage for dinner, and as she feeds them, she locks the cage door for the night. Occasionally, a wild squirrel returns with “Joy’s squirrels”, but races out of the cage when it sees Joy.

And then after about ten more days, comes graduation. She feeds them one morning, opens the door, and doesn’t close it in the evening. The squirrels eventually quit coming back to the cage as they adjust to life in the wild. There are some she knows by sight, and can see them running in nearby trees.

Squirrels typically live two to three years in the wild, although they can live four or five years. It’s rare that they die of old age as they have so many predators. I’ve asked Joy why she does this, when squirrels have such a tough life to begin with. Her answer?