Squirrel: Fred's Story

Hi, my name is Fred. My “mom” gave me that name. She was wonderful. I remember that when I was very little, in Southwest Iowa, my squirrel mom was moving me to a new nest when a human started coming towards us. I could feel that my squirrel mom was terrified; she did not know what to do so she started to run and she dropped me.

I know she did not mean to but she would have come back for me if I were left alone. She would have come to get me when the humans left. But no, the humans would not go away. They picked me up and I was taken to a human “mom”. I know that if the humans knew my squirrel mom was coming back for me they would have left me alone but they didn’t know. My new "mom” was just as nice but the milk she fed me did not taste the same. I finally got too big for the first box and “mom” put me in a larger cage with tree branches to climb and places to hide. Then came the day when “mom” moved me again and I heard birds and met other squirrels. I could not leave my new home yet but I got to talk to other squirrels, bugs and birds.

One day my “mom” opened up my home, I could come and go as I pleased. It took me a while to come out of my home but I finally did.  The first thing I saw was a tree, but I fell off my house and landed on the ground with leaves and sticks.  I found a tree and shimmed up it fast. Oh that was fun.

I know my “mom” loved me because she let me go climb that tree.

I do not talk to my “mom” anymore even though I see her now and then. I found myself a girl and “mom” does not need me anymore.