NIP

The day my neighbor showed up at the front door with an orphaned baby squirrel was an exciting day. They knew that I would not hesitate to adopt it. After checking with the wildlife center, I hurried to get all the necessary equipment for my new baby’s survival. “Nip” fit right in with the family and it wasn’t long before he believed I was his birth mother. After a while it became necessary to put Nip outside in a large cage. When he adapted to the outdoor weather, I left the cage open for him to get used to running around in the trees. The plan was that he would make his way back to the wildlife that he deserved. The only problem was that he didn’t have the same plan. Every time I went out on the deck he would scamper down the tree and run all over me from head to toe. He really was a lot of fun to have around and so it seemed that there would be no problem… that is until my husband decided to pay attention to him one day. I realized that I had misnamed him when he took a plug out of Tim. But who ever heard of a squirrel named “Plug”? As Tim hurled my squirrel like a baseball across the backyard, I tried to explain to him that the squirrel just didn’t recognize him. “I THINK I KNOW WHEN A SQUIRREL RECOGNIZES ME OR NOT!!!!!!”, he blurted out. Trying not to laugh, I went to check on Nip. He was a little shaken but no broken bones. At Tim’s demand, I took Nip up the road to a wooded area and left him. Because squirrels are territorial, I was concerned about Nip getting in unfriendly territory. I heard about a man who had a squirrel rescue and that’s all it took for me to go find Nip and take him to a safer place. Nip adjusted quite well according to the squirrel man other than taking a plug out him too. I really can’t blame him though. If your name was “Nip” and somebody re-named you “Tinker Bell”, then maybe you would be a little upset too.