• Editorials
  • Rehab Stories
  • Zazzle Store
  • Copyright

A Squirrel's Tale Wildlife Rehabilitation

Because it matters to this one....

  • Home
  • Sunny
  • Wildlife Emergencies
  • Links
  • How To Help
  • Natural History
    • Eastern grey squirrel
    • Fox Squirrel
  • Videos
  • About Us

George, By George; Bye George

March 2, 2019 by PJ. Garner

Fortune and love favor the brave.
(Ovid)

George Staples

We bid farewell to George Staples yesterday.  Just a few weeks shy of his 11th birthday, congestive heart failure ran its inevitable course; breaking our hearts dreadfully in the process. 

There is no accounting for how well a wild animal will fare in captivity but I have found that truly non-releasables simply and uncannily know they are safe here and so go on to live a decently long and contented life.  Some, like George Staples, however, embrace their captive life with sheer exuberance and joy.  Though he was never fond of being held, George loved to play.  And if I couldn’t play with him he gleefully played with his “baby” when I would tell him to “Go get your baby, George!”  He’d growl at it and pounce on it, he’d roll with it, he’d groom it and otherwise love on it; throughout his whole life he only had three of them for unlike most squirrels given something with stuffing he never deliberately set out to open them up and use their innards for lining his bed.  When I did play with him, he would pounce with his unique, throaty little ferocious growl and roll, let me roll him, scrabble, and otherwise quite literally bounce around in all ways squirrely until he reached the point of exhaustion. Then he would flop down on top of his stuffed toy and I would rub on him until he decided it was time to do it all over again.  The last few months of his dotage of course changed to mostly the rubbing on him part of our play time but his stuffed toy remained the constant. 

As his age truly began to manifest his last winter molt did not go so well and I began to call him my “Velveteen Rabbit” since he more resembled his worn stuffed toy than an elegant old fox squirrel.  One line from that beloved book kept coming to mind: 

“Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

If it is possible, it only made me love George more.

Though the tears run hot today I know that I have been blessed to have spent this much time with such a brave and funny little soul.  I remember worrying how he would take to hearing the vacuum run since the sound is almost as loud and obnoxious as the chainsaw that brought our lives together, and then laughing as he simply watched me clean with a nonchalance that could not quite hide his curiosity.  More than once early on he would even go so far as to try to investigate the business end of the vacuum hose but of course that potentially tragic action was never allowed.  And when I was done it was nothing but playtime again. 

For most of his life George’s cage was next to where I sit when I work from home so there was more than the usual opportunity for and opportunity taken for interaction.  The quietness now is dreadful and it will be days and days before I stop automatically turning my head to glance over and see what my funny little boy is doing; only to feel the gut-punch of reality reminding me that so-loved togetherness is no more.

Where we were when this started and where we are when this ended are so very different. A decade flown past is an incredulous thought juxtaposed with the constant that was our relationship.  A reminder that life will continue to go on.  I can only thank you, George Staples, for so willingly sharing your life with me.

Filed Under: Featured, Rehab Stories Tagged With: animals, George, squirrel, squirrels, wildlife, wildlife rehabilitation

George Staples

June 30, 2008 by PJ. Garner

“Mishaps are like knives that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.”
(James Russell Lowell)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Rehab Stories Tagged With: animals, George, squirrel, squirrels, wildlife, wildlife rehabilitation

Who Killed Kenny?

June 30, 2008 by PJ. Garner

“As I have discovered by examining my past, I started out as a child. Coincidentally, so did my brother. My mother did not put all her eggs in one basket, so to speak: she gave me a younger brother named Russell, who taught me what was meant by ‘survival of the fittest.'”
(Bill Cosby)

 
Because George Staples was too injured and a little too young to be put into the foster litter made up of Stevie and Titan, once his staples were removed and he was starting to feel up to playing like a normal baby squirrel, he was given a stuffed plush dog toy, about his size and in the shape of a squirrel. And like all young fox squirrels, George loved his “Kenny” and would spend long periods of time pouncing on it, rolling around over it, and rolling around under it. He also loved when I would pick up Kenny and wiggle it at him, making for a much more lifelike and exciting playtime.

Sometimes, when like all small children up way past their bedtime George would still want to bounce when I needed to be in bed, I would have to stuff Kenny’s front end into George’s sleep sack in order to get the message across to him that not only playtime but the entire day was officially over. In the morning I’d often find him still snuggled up against it; Kenny may have been an extremely retarded foster sibling, but Kenny was George’s well-loved foster sibling nonetheless.

Up early this morning, I noticed George had also awakened. I walked over to his small cage and he greeted me with the usual grunty oofs of happiness, begging for his ration of morning formula. I obliged, but when I went to put the small dish into his cage, I noticed that Kenny was shoved into the corner and laying on top of George’s food dish. And the water bottle was empty. When I picked up Kenny to move it, I realized that Kenny suddenly weighed a whole lot more than it had weighed last night.

Yes, he killed Kenny. Drowned Kenny, to be exact. Or maybe it is better described as a form of Chinese water torture since Kenny had apparently spent the night pressed up against the spout of the water bottle. But like the Kenny on South Park, this little round ball will also mysteriously reappear. Once he dries out, of course. And George will continue to love his Kenny with every ounce of harrassment he can inflict upon it.

Filed Under: Rehab Stories Tagged With: animals, George, squirrel, squirrels, wildlife, wildlife rehabilitation

Enjoy Squirrels All Year!

It's here! It's here!
Our full-color, 12-month annual Squirrel Calendar for 2021 is now available!

Remember, they make great gifts and all proceeds go towards the care of our wild residents.

Support Us!Please Visit Our Store!

Research Fundraiser

We are currently raising funds to run blood panels on Eastern fox squirrels for research and reference purposes. CLICK HERE to learn more.

Recent Posts

  • Coming Up For Air
  • George, By George; Bye George
  • A Tiny Note
  • Bloody Cold
  • Every Breath You Drew Was “Hallelujah”
  • Shifting Fates
  • No Good Men (or Women) In Holley
  • Senseless, Defenseless Squirrel Slaughter In Holley, New York
  • The Holy Trinity
  • Bound To Live

Subscribe For Blog Updates!

RSS Enter Email Below

Archives

Alexander T. Squirrel Wants YOU!

 
Click on Alex to donate using Paypal.

Feed The Squirrels The Easy Way!

Use Good Search for your searching and shopping and they will donate money to A Squirrel's Tale.
Goodsearch: You Search...We Give!

RSS 2018 Rehab Photos

  • SciurusNiger's photo
  • SciurusNiger's photo
  • SciurusNiger's photo

Copyright Notice

© PJ. Garner,  Garnered Images Photography and SquirrelTale.com. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to PJ. Garner and SquirrelTale.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Support Our Supporters

Shop eBay now to support our cause!

Here's big THANK YOU to some of our present and past eBay sellers who've listed multiple items with eBay Giving Works in support of A Squirrel's Tale. You folks are wonderful!

babbletees, *queenofhearts*, tricitypartsnmore, shan24non, fat13boy, niftytwenty, bulltznbracelets, lunaenvy, scalisti, fsuwholesale, currinjc777, natasha_be, blvdsbuzzinghowl, acbbcc006, barbaarah, 0nest0psupersh0p

Copyright © 2021 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

logo
  • Home
  • Sunny
  • Wildlife Emergencies
  • Links
  • How To Help
  • Natural History
    • Eastern grey squirrel
    • Fox Squirrel
  • Videos
  • About Us