The Baby Squirrel Chronicles

My life is definitely FAR from being boring and even less so when you live in a critter wonderland.  We have LOTS of trees.  That was one of the requirements for us when we bought our home.  There's something comforting about being surrounded by mature trees.  With trees, come critters.  We have an overabundance of them...chipmunks, squirrels, woodpeckers, and hawks to name a few.  I dig it.  It reminds me of how much thought God put into his creation.  I'm continually amazed.  Last night was no exception.  My husband had been experiencing some weirdness with his blinker and headlight on his car, so he decided to inspect.  He opened the hood and I hear him exclaim from across the yard, "What the crap?" and this is what he found:

Well, that's interesting.  Surely it is a nest of some sort.  We were a little afraid of what might be under all that grass and leaves, hence the sharp object being used to remove said debris.  We started to pull away the incredibly PACKED amount of "mulch" and saw this:

Uh-oh.  That's definitely fur.  Yep, something has been living under the hood of my husband's car (which he actually drives approximately 30 miles to downtown and back every day).  Upon further removal of leaves and grass, this appeared.

Do you know what it is?  Yep, a baby squirrel....and his siblings.  Are you serious?  What the heck are we supposed to do?  This definitely falls into the "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" category for me.  We were clueless as to how to proceed, but decided on donning a pair of gloves and placing them with their nest into a shoe box.

But, of course, there wasn't just one baby.....

THERE WERE THREE!!!!!  Oh my gosh, they are so stinkin' cute.  I wanted to cuddle up with them right then and there with a little make shift baby bottle like you see them do on all the TV shows.  But, since my husband says they are nothing more than glorified rats (and he was none too happy that they had chewed through his headlight wire), he poo-pooed my sad puppy eye face that asked can we keep them.

So, we left them in the shoe box and covered them up with their nest fillins'.  Then we tipped our trash bin on its side and placed the box inside (so they didn't get rained on) with a warm blankie tucked around the outside of it.

And there they sit, hoping that their mama finds them and is able to feed them.  My mothering instincts have definitely taken over.  I don't care if they look like rats.  They are God's creation and I want those things to survive, especially after my dog killed one last Spring.  I checked on them this morning and they were all still there snuggled up together.  I sighed relief.  I'm scared to death that a cat or something else is going to decide they make a tasty lunch.  But, I keep praying that God will take care of them and let them grow up.  I'm going to try and take pictures of them every day - I wish like crazy I had a web cam so you all could join in on the fun, but I don't.  I'll try to post regular updates though.

Now, do you see why my life isn't boring? : )