this post was submitted on 11 May 2024
284 points (100.0% liked)

aww

23275 readers
839 users here now

A place with minimal rules for stuff that makes you go awww! Feel free to post pics, gifs, or videos of cats, dogs, babies, or anything cute and remember to be kind to others.

AI posts must be labeled [AI] in the title and are limited to one per week.

While posting and commenting in this community, you must abide by instance-wide rules: https://mastodon.world/about

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Story time! We recently bought a rural property with a burnt down house on it and are going up every few weekends to clean it up. I'm up there this morning picking up random sheet metal and yeeting it into the trash pile. Suddenly I hear frantic squeaks....I look, and I accidentally yeeted the cover of a squirrel nest (I think squirrel)! I got the baby, got it out of the baking sun and made a new nest under another piece of cover. Still, holding a baby squirrel so new it's eyes weren't open was pretty magical! The kids (I have a 7 year old girl and a 9 year old boy) got to each hold it for a second too! Ideally we wouldn't have touched it, but the existing cover was mega-gone and it had to be relocated to safety out of the sun, so we got some brush and put it under a smaller wood plank right near where we found it, hopefully it's mom finds it, no one will be up there for the next few weeks so it won't be disturbed by people again.

all 11 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it was on the ground I would assume bun nest. I'm not an expert on either critter though so hopefully someone else can chime in.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It had a long worm-like tail. If it was smaller I would have thought mouse, but the leading theories are squirrel or mole.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looks kinda squirrelly but they don't nest on the ground as far as I know. Hands too small to be a mole. Might be another rodent. I asked my critter enthusiast girlfriend and she said a general geographic location might help identify.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

El Dorado county in California, just north of Placerville, on a hill above the banks of the South fork of the American River.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Almost definitely a rat. I should've guessed having 3 lol, but I hadn't seen a baby until looking it up.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

My previous experience in remote trash piles says pack rats, lol.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I hope mom finds and cares for baby and comes to thank you and your children.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't want to speculate as to the fate of the baby, the corrugated sheet metal had to be moved and it was only a few minutes after I had removed it that we heard the squeaking. Nature is gonna nature, either the squirrel will survive, or a predator will get an easy meal. The thing is, within the family, we will probably ask "is that the squirrel all grown up?" every time we see a squirrel up there for the next few years. I think that's the best outcome we can hope for.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Yes. The universe flukes, sometimes, too. Best wishes to all. Fluke or not.