Happy First Birthday Mondrian!

 On August 30, 2015 at about 4:00 in the afternoon Brandon and I had just arrived at my mom’s house when I screen shot this photo.

I thought it was cute, looked like something Brandon’s mom would like, as well as mine, thinking it would be something I would give them had I had children.  My step-dad, Jim had passed away exactly two weeks to-the-day prior, so we were there to visit her and so Brandon could help her with a few things around the house and the yard. 

At 8:04 Brandon, who had been outside working in the yard came yelling thru the front door, “Do you have some gloves, what about a box?"

My mom and I were at the kitchen counter and she jumped and had exactly what he needed. We both were wondering why he needed them. He was holding his hands cupped and there was something stirring in them... I quickly looked and freeaaaaked out! I mean full on FREAKED out- squealing and running all over the house waving my hands. It looked like an embryo, which is I think why I was acting like a ridiculous child and a complete weenie. 
We really weren't quite sure what he had found. 

Brandon held him in his hands, now gloved, and I calmed down so I could take a look at him after Brandon and my mom reassured me it was just a baby of some kind. This tiny little creature had a huge gash on his arm along with minor little cuts all over, it almost looked like it was detached, which was another reason I went into hysterics. As Brandon turned him over to put some peroxide on his open wound we realized he still had his umbilical cord! 

We figured he must have just been born, at least within the last day and fallen from his nest. 

(If you enlarge the photo above you can kind of see it)

We put him in a shoe box and I immediately got online to figure out what this little creature was. My mother wasn't sure if it was a squirrel or raccoon, after doing a little recon we figured out the baby was a squirrel baby. His long dark fingers, his pink almost translucent skin, dark bulging fly like eyes. Yep, it was a squirrel. I can live with that. Now what? 

All three of us just watched him the rest of the night. We tried to give him water through a cut straw and he would lap it up. I called a couple of rescue places with no answer. Finally, we had to head home. Since Brandon was driving I had to hold the box on my lap. As I looked at him I started realizing, this little thing is alone, fell, and is badly cut and needs to be taken care of, he was just a newborn. We didn’t really know what we were getting into but we knew we had to help this tiny little life the best we could. 

His eyeglass cloth blanket, sucking his thumb the day after we found him. 

In my online research I read that it was best to put a heating pad under his box so when we got home we did so and made it soft and cozy with Brandon’s t-shirts. We used an eye glass cleaning cloth as his blanket to cover him and made sure he was warm. We have a cat so we decided we better keep the baby box in the closet so nothing happened. That first night I  kneeled over him in the closet and just stared at him and touched him, for hours. I fell in love. 

We had NO idea what we were going to do or how long we would be keeping this little baby, it was late August and since he was so young we knew we wouldn’t be able to release him until spring because by the time he was old enough to be released it would be winter which is the wrong time to release back into the wild. 

Several weeks after having him we again called couple of rescue places and not one called us back so we were left again with the thought we were going to have to keep him. We even spoke to one lady not far from where we lived (so I could maybe go and see him) that had rescued over 200 squirrels and said that maybe she could keep him until spring when we could release him back to my mom’s yard. We talked to her for a while, I cried telling her how much I was in love with him and his story. She said she would talk to her partner and see if they could do it and she never called us back. Brandon texted and called her numerous times. So we just went forward, doing whatever was needed to take care of him. 

I couldn't wait every day to get home to see him and spend time with him. I spent most of my time at home in the closet with him, feeding him and loving on him . I will never forget a couple of days in I turned him over and realized he was a boy. Brandon came in to ask if I needed anything and I said “look Brandon it’s a boy”. He looked down and said “MY BOY” as he was rather well endowed for a little thing. 

Late that first night I realized I needed something to track his feedings, I went to my bag full of blank note pads and the first one I pulled out was from the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles. It said Mondrian at the top and I thought, "that would be a cool name", went in and told Brandon what I had found and he agreed he liked the name. I couldn’t believe that would be THE FIRST note pad I would pull out was an artist's name since he was found in front of my mom’s house, who's an artist, and then I was thrilled because each page of his tracked feedings was “monogrammed” with his name!

I  pulled out our food scale so that I could take his weight each day and record it. In the first week or he weighed .95 ounces and he was less than the length of a pen, with his tail. 

Since we didn't know what to feed him, only giving him water in little drops, the next day I called several places- odd pet stores around that might have an idea what to give him. One of the places told us to get goat's milk, so off we went to get it. I then found a wonderful squirrel website, squirreltales.org. I have since referred many friends that have found squirrels and unsure what to do that site. It said to not give goats' milk or any other milk but gave a great recipe, along with photos of squirrels that had been fed the formula and those that had not, a remarkable difference, so Brandon headed to Target to get the items. 

He knows the pharmacist and asked for a couple of syringes, they happily obliged and he got the rest of the items in the recipe. I mixed the ingredients as called for on the site everyday: water, Esbilac puppy powder and heavy whipping cream. The site had a table of the amounts to give and how to ween him into less water and more solids. For the next month or so I fed him every two hours, even through the night. He also needed assistance in eliminating so I had to coax his ability to do so. I won't get into descriptives on that, just know I had to help him along in the beginning. ;)

During the first week we had him I found the cutest, most perfect dog toy at the dollar store, its body was flat like a book mark with soft fur and a head of a bear like a stuffed animal; I would wrap him in it sometimes when I would feed him and since the body wasn't stuffed but furry, I would cover him with it or put it by him while he slept. I wanted him to always have that same “stuffed animal” so he would feel secure, since he didn't have his squirrel mommy to sleep with him. 

At about six weeks with his bear

Second bed, with "tall walls"

He was in his shoe box in the closet for a while and even before he could see he was starting to figure out how to get out of it... time for a box with taller walls! I found the cutest orange storage cube at the dollar store that was fabric and I lined it with tshirts. He then started climbing out of that! 

I was so worried he would get lost in my closet and we wouldn’t find him, so we took him out of the closet and moved him into our room in a hamster cage for sleeping at night and when we weren’t home. We went to the pet store and loaded up with different things he could play with and keep him occupied. 

In his third "room" about 3.5 months old

We continued to line the cage with t-shirts and bought him a little bed. Eventually he figured out how to pull with his mouth on the latches and he would pop the metal bars, which made a very loud noise to get us to wake up and take him out. So… 

we purchased a large double decker ferret cage. 

I wish I had known, but just read it a week or so ago that the best cages are bird cages because they are more vertical. 

Let me out please

He did not like to be in his large cage much either but we had to put him in it while we were out of the house because we were not sure what our cat Ivrie would do or what he might get into. He didn’t like it but he eventually would go in. He is so clever and smart, when he knew he was about to have to go to his cage he would scramble (very fast- they are so fast- at everything) to the very part of our backs that you can’t reach!

We finally started allowing him to go to sleep on our dining room table in a circular mound of tshirts that Brandon would build for him and then Mondrian would perfect with his mouth to get comfortable and be covered, he would burrow down in it. It is on the middle of the dining room table, which is also where we put his food and let him roam. I would then transfer him after he was alseep to his smaller cage in our room. I would wisper to him every night "let's go get in your night night bed", he would never wake up and run, just snuggle next to me until I placed him and he'd crawl right in his little bed in the cage. 

I would cover him and he'd stay asleep. 

The dining room table with his mound of t-shirts.
He makes a little opening like a tunnel to get in and out.

In his 1st cage, in his what I called "playboy bunny bed"
Brandon picked it out, Mondrian loved it. 

                                                     

When he was still drinking formula I would 

swaddle him in a washcloth while he had his “bottle”. I would get his amrs tight just like you would swaddle a human baby and I think it probalby felt good to the injury on his arm from his fall

                                                                 

Brandon used Neosporin to help heal his wounds

and after every feeding I would take a warm washcloth and wipe his mouth and hands, which he loved, would lay belly up, and you could tell just relishing in how delightful it felt. 

This photo cracks me up

The website became my squirrel "baby bible" and I read as much as I could about the best way to care for him and learn the stages of his growth. When he started getting darker which meant his hair was underneath and about to come in, he looked a little like a salamander. 

He started trying to "walk" before his eyes opened by just feeling around, it was a hoot, he would wobble wobble wobble, wiggle his bottom, start to get up on his hind legs and just fall over. I’m sure much like any toddler. It was just precious.

His itsy bitsy almost non-existent ears started to form (which by the way now are so incredibly soft and feel as thin as a piece of paper) and his head started to grow- those big bug eyes started looking a little less buggy though they would not open until the 5th week. Right on cue at exactly 5 weeks I was feeding him and his right eye opened and looked at me. His left eye didn't open till the next day. 

Very shortly after his eye opened the first time

My sweet aunt purchased a miracle nipple for him to put on his bottle, before that he would "kneed" but his hands would go nowhere so this helped him stay steady. It also helped him suckle on something soft rather than the hard plastic of the syringe. 

 

It was a miracle and I was only sad that we didn't discover it sooner because within a couple of weeks he weened himself off of his formula and his first solid food which was   

a squirrel block we found online, in my reading it said to try different things, introduce him gradually to new foods, we started with raw broccoli, then carrots then found his ultimate favorite still to this day- sweet potato. Then avocado was the thing for a while, which he still loves. He also likes blueberries, apples and sugar snap peas more than other things. 

Broccoli! 

His first carrot. Eating inside my robe.

He's tried lots of veggies and fruits; he went through a stage in the begining of only eating one thing for an extended time and then go to another and only eat that, but lately he will will eat mulitple things. We are always trying to get him to eat kale for the calcium for his bones. Squirrles can get bone disease which can be fatal. 

This was part of his "no nut" diet, when he became "fatboy slim" 

He doesn't drink much. But when he does he drinks out of Ivrie's bowl. She doesn't mind. They have crossed paths every once and a while, but mostly go around each other if they are both up on the counter or one jumps off. In general think she is more scared of him I think than he is of her. But every once in a while when he's asleep she cries and walks around, we think looking for him. 

He has been known to swat at her when she gets too close. Had we known we were going to keep him so long we would have acclimated them sooner so they might be better friends, but since we weren't sure we wanted to keep him away from her so if we released him he would be scared of predators. 

Our dining room has sort of become his room and play area. The ferrett cage "walls'' off the dining area from the living room and there are three sides of windows which he perches on frequently.  There is also an open bakers rack on one wall that he loves to play on. 

I had to pack up all of our glassware on the rack so it didn't get broken or he got hurt.

He doesn't mind being on top of it

He also likes to sleep on a tall stand of moving boxes that has a new cat box stuffed with scraps of material with blankets covering it, this was for our cat Ivrie, but he found it and started sleeping there at times. And funny enough she has now taken over the mound on the table and has for the last month or so been ploped down in the middle of it...

...but then he took over her bed so how can you blame her? 

We quickly learned once he started walking and climbing, especially on us, that we had to cover everything that was fabric in the house and to ourseleves be covered. Once his eyes were open he explored everywhere. Mostly hanging out on the couch with us. 

When we get home we put on what we call "our squirrel clothes" to keep from getting cut by his razor sharp nails. I have been able to trim them twice. We have gotten used to having little cuts all over our hands, arms and legs, but we have found epson salt baths help heal those wounds, so it's not a huge deal. 

Since everything was covered when he was first exploring, he did so on the couch and would bury his food or nuts in the blankets. It was so funny and very instinctual. He also does this on the floor, hell bury something in a corner, even if there is nothing there to cover it. 

For the first first five to six months, whenever I was home he stayed inside my robe. He liked to lay, almost like in a hammock, just above the belt. I did all my housework and hung out with him like that all the time. It was a sad day for me when he grew out of doing it! He's always like to jump and run around on us. He takes a ride, while I do stuff around the house, still on that same robe, but on the outside of it now. He's very strong and will even hang off with just his back legs even when hanging on our robes. 

Just a couple of weeks old

Inside laying on my chest 

Lettuce... in my robe

This is my all time favorite photo

My fiance works from home so he was with him most of the day, which was at times very trying. He went through a phase since Brandon was with him all the time that he just wanted to be with him and would actually seek him out to lay with him, he never really has done that with me in the same way. 

I came home from work to this, which was so cute but I was so jealous. 

They have a special bond and Mondrian loves to be on him as well. Especially if he hasn't seen him all afternoon. In the sweetest voice Brandon will say as he's petting him,  

"he knows who found him" 

One of my mom's favorite pics. So indicative of how gentle he really is. 

We bought a tall cat tree so he could run all over it and get exercise and be up high. As I was leaving work one day they were cutting some of the limbs on the trees and I found one that was almost six feet tall and hauled it home and it is propped up against the cat tree so he could naw on it and run on it. 

When he was about 5 months old we had a friend in town and Mondrian was on his tree, our friend was going out the door next to it and kept the door open a little too long not thinking about Mondrian being so close and he could possibly dart out, so I grabbed his leg to keep him from running and he kept going so it hurt is little leg. I felt awful, we was limping and favoring it for a couple of weeks, I thought it may never be the same. It's fine, just needed a little healing, but for the longest time he would not go on his cat tree. He had stopped laying in my robe several weeks prior to the accident and after it happened he went back to laying in my robe again for a while. It was bitter sweet but I loved having him back if only for a bit.

I had to put him on a “no nut diet” because he started getting a little plum, one if his nicknames is fatredbelly- he doesn’t have the same kind of exercise as those that live outside. We limit the nuts we give him, or if he finds them where he’s buried them he can have them. 

Fat red belly eating a snap pea

To try to help him get exercise we would play with a towel, dragging it along the floor and have him run after it. When he was younger I would play with him over our chairs and dangle it for him to jump and swing, which he still does, after running after it. 

Its the same towel I used for his feedings. 

His favorite towel. The one he plays with and opened his first eye while feeding on.

He’s a destructive little monster, his teeth constantly grow so he constantly wants to chew on something. We have lots of logs and sticks all over our house. Always bringing home new ones for him to enjoy so he doesn't get bored and chew something we don't want him to. We have to cover everything so his razor sharp nails won’t tear any of our furniture, and so he don't potty on anything. Everyone always wants to know where he goes potty- A. that is very personal and B. it's the size of an ant, so its very easy to clean up; and remember he doesn't drink a ton. 

Our floor usually looks like a barn, or the outdoors, in spots, but its not anything a broom and the Dyson cordless can't handle.

His "mini playground" in the living room

He loves to explore and gets into everything, especially on the kitchen counter. We have had  to put so many things away. I had an open candy jar, with wrapped candy in it and he would not leave it alone, always wanting to go over to dig through it. He loves sugar, but we don't let him have it. 

He found the mini Tabasco bottles on the top of the stove...

...which he promptly "buried" 

He is crazy and funny and A LOT of work and not without some frustration and aggravation, but with lots of love, and we love just watching him. It's getting easier as he gets older and has started learning more, he is much more calm. He loves to be payed attention to and if he comes out of his bed and we don't give it to him, he will go back in. 

We marvel everyday we have him and look at each other often and say "we have a squirrel."

He loves to run on the blinds, he used to go in and out of them and then one afternoon we looked up and he was caught in between because he had gotten too fat. 

Sadly, Mondrian doesn't really do well with other people than us, but I am hopeful the more he's around others he will start to be more social. The first person to come to our house after we found him was my sister. She came over to meet him when she was in town over Christmas, he was only 5 months, and he hid somewhere while she was here. We looked and couldn't find him. 

When he got a little older and people would come over he would do better, like when our friend was here during the tree incident, he hung out with us and sat with us; but typically he goes and hides in his bed (or wherever he is sleeping at that moment), sometimes even "barking" and batting his hands if the new person gets too close. Strangely he does it even if he's completely hidden. 

He was fine with people in the early months and many great friends were in town during the month of October and came to visit; many others wanted to meet him so we even had a "baby shower" for him which was really just an excuse to drink and have a party, I mean? Who has a squirrel baby shower?"

So many fun, precious friends came and brought their kids. It was a blast! Since Mondrian was so little and didn't get around that well yet were able to take him with us and allow the kids to see and pet him. He just slept the whole time. 

 Hang out spot between the door frame and blinds

He’s very finicky, always has been, with food and areas; the phrase "oh look squirrel" when refering to how it feels when you are in a conversation and have ADD, is right- he will play, sleep and hang out in one place for a an extended period and then finds a new favorite place for each of those activities. It was the cat tree for a while,  his “jungle gym” of my bakers rack, and sitting in the windows.  He loves to sit in the windows. He has never been outside and I don't think really knows what's outside the window or can see that far. He even has gone through periods of only wanting to be on one of us over the other. Right now his place to hang out is in the living room on a the top of cat scratching post, which is where we usually are.  

He used to sleep about 3 pm, sometimes a a little later, around sundown and would sleep through the evening and all through the night until Brandon, who gets up first in the morning, was up. Now he likes to nap in the afternoon then get up for a snack and spend time with us in the evening before going back to bed. He still sleeps till morning. 

We haven't been out much in the last year because we've wanted to be with him and not leave him in his cage. We would only leave once we knew he was in bed for the night. It's been totally worth it though, and when we do go places he seems to be the topic of conversation, which is always really fun, and kind. Now as he's getting older we have been leaving the house more even if he is awake. We try to leave around the times he would be going "down for a nap" so we know he is probably going to go get in bed soon, not explore much or get into much, and not wake up for a long while. 

The first time we tried to leave him out while we weren't home for 30 mins. this is what happened to my entry mirror.
We caged him for a long while after when we weren't home. 

He hates to be reprimanded but does stop whatever he’s doing if we do If he wants to keep doing something or has food, he will "bark" at us and bat at us with his hands. He's starting to know the word no; he will stop and stare at me, but many times he will go right back to whatever he was doing. And if he doesn't want to be taken off of one of us or something and we try, or I accidentally rub on him too hard he will squeak.

We continue to discipline him and teach him, he likes when he hears "good boy". Even whips his tail around when he gets really excited. The communicate in the wild with their tails. He learns more and more everyday. In fact last night I told him to get off of a table several times and finally as I would get up to say no and get off, he would jump off onto a box he plays on before I could say anything. Smart guy. 

He loves to have his hands rubbed, and his shoulders, I think because he's always jumping up and down. He's got the softest puffiest little pads on his hands and feet. His long fingers and little hands are so super cute especially when he's holding something. They even can make the iPhone work- he once dialed a friend when my contact list was up by stepping on it.

When he was a little baby he would snuggle with me and we finally when he got a bit bigger and I wasn't afraid I would roll over on him, we  gradually allowed him to sleep with us, in my robe of course, or a my neck. He now only sleeps in one of his spots and we don't even cage him during the night. Currently his spot is on the cat box tower. 

He doesn't really come to you if you were to call him- YET, and he doesn't search us out if we are in another room like a dog would (but I have had that happen once). However, he used to come over to Brandon, if Brandon was laying on the couch and I wasn't home yet, and snuggle in his lap. 

We adore him and it has been a huge struggle for many months. Keep him? Release him? What is best for him? Would he be too acclimated to us to go back into the wild and be hurt? I knew if we kept him then on his year birthday I wanted to write his story. 

I'm so glad I am able to. 

It has been so cute as of late because he has wanted to cuddle on my arm or on my lap (went through a phase last week of only wanting to be on my knee) to be petted, and will be there for hours He loves to have his jaw rubbed, almost to the point of falling asleep. I'm sure because of all the gnawing he does. He will sit for hours on my lap, or in my arms if I'm standing. He certainly becoming more "pet like".

The wild part, as if there is only one,  about this whole experience is, a little over a month prior to my step-father Jim’s passing, while he was still doing pretty well, we were all having Sunday dinner at their house and somehow we started talking about children (I can’t have children because I have a congenital heart problem) and Jim said to me, “Are you still thinking about children?”, and I said well “you never know, we could adopt” to which he responded “cool, let’s get you a baby!" Mondrian was found at the base of a large tree, his nest at least a 100 feet up,  just outside the room which Jim spent his last moments. We have loved every minute and feel incredibly blessed to have him; can't believe he's been with us a year.