"adopt" a wild animal Options

[JlIaTMK]

So, I have a question on this, because I am sure that most haven't.

Have any of you adopted a wild animal before?

Bleh, a couple days ago [Friday I believe] a baby fox squirrel, yes it was blind, fell out of my tree and I decided to pick it up with gloves and put it in a box. Now, someone noted to me that it's mother does not come back after a human hand touches it, so I "adopted it". I have fed it what it said that I should feed it, online, and it, in the little time that I have "adopted" it, has grown fast, and has opened its eyes and can see. The only thing I will have a problem with is letting it go when it gets older :sigh:.

[sadolakced acid]

it won't leave when it's older....

at least, if the movies are correct.

[Ballpointpencil]

it won't leave when it's older....

at least, if the movies are correct.

It won't leave if it has an easy food source. To make it leave, you just have to cut off it's food supply from you (gradually, of course) so that it learns to make it's own way. My dad has had squirrels before, back when he was a park ranger.


Well, usually we don't mess with the wild animals around here, but occasionally one will be in trouble so we help it out for the time being.
Example: I found a dove at school that was acting sick and couldn't fly more than a few feet. Borrowed the band director's lost and found box and took it home, where Dad helped me to feed and water it (and keep it in a reasonably temperate room). Trinity (as we called her) lived for three days, but died of the disease that had made her act like that in the first place. She had contracted the disease that had been going around the birds of the area for a little less than a month, and very few survived it. The vet said that we were at least able to make her last few days much more comfortable.

I volunteer at a local animal rehab, and Dad is fairly well-known among the rangers in the area (even though he hasn't been a park ranger since he became a preacher, years and years ago, heh) so we do tend to take in a lot of animals. We've taken in raccoons, birds (including young raptors, my specialty as I am working towards a falconry license), possums, squirrels, et cetera. So... we don't really "adopt" wild animals, as we rarely have them for more than a few months.