Wildlife rehabilitators Christina and Michael helped a man who discovered a mother squirrel building a nest of twigs, dried pines and branches on his bed for her two newborn babies.
They tried reuniting the young squirrels with their mother but she refused to take them back out into the wild, instead, the mom continued to fetch nesting materials to the bed to surround her babies. Eventually, the mother stopped coming back and the two babies were adopted by local rehabbers.
Sadly, one of the newborn squirrels didn’t make it, and after being evaluated by a local wildlife vet, it was concluded that the surviving baby would not be able to live safely in the wild. So Christina and Michael decided to adopt the squirrel, which they named Little Thumbelina.
Thumbelina was a special case since the beginning. Because of a rare birthing season and the loss of her sister, she grew up all by herself without the interaction with other squirrels.
Little Thumb’s progress is also slow. While most babies don’t care for milk once they taste real food, Thumb was a big baby with a bottle who snubbed real food. She’s also not interested in jumping and climbing but prefers walking and sitting.
Despite the family’s efforts in introducing Thumb to other squirrels, she wanted nothing to do with them. Today, Thumbelina is a happy eastern grey squirrel who loves to spend her time with her Mom and Dad. Her family considered her as their “little ambassador squirrel,” teaching people to realize how important it is to respect the wildlife and spread the message, “Each little life is big to the one living it,” the official website reads.
