Buddy the Squirrel

In my last post, I mentioned my mom's tendency to take in pets.  This made me think I could share some of the stories about these animals.  We have had many pets in my life, but perhaps the most memorable is Buddy the Squirrel.  Yup, we had a pet squirrel.  This is how it happened.

One day, my mom found a small brown lump in the grass outside the house.  When she went to investigate, she saw that it was a baby squirrel.  It had fallen out of the tree.  She went inside and did some research, finding that the poor little squirrel would not be welcome back into the tree and would most likely not survive on its own.  So she decided to take it in.  She got a ferret cage, filled it with newspaper and named the squirrel Buddy.

Buddy grew to be a full sized, happy, healthy squirrel...and a house pet.  We would sing a little song to him and he would get excited and run in circles and jump up and down.  He would sit on people's shoulders and run up and down their arms.  Not mine though, it kinda gave me the heebie jeebies to feel his little rodent does on my skin.

Eventually we found an animal rescue that agreed to take him in.  My mom cried, but the family was moving out of state and couldn't take him.

So if you're ever in Maryland and see a dancing squirrel, you know you have met Buddy.