Friday, September 24, 2010

Slow Release Day 5: Babygirl's Big Adventure

I found out from some friends on the Squirrel Board that this is not a "soft release". A "soft release" is when you put the squirrel in a cage outside for maybe as long as a week to get used to the Great Outdoors. This helps them overcome their insecurity. Squirrels are sensitive little creatures. They need this. You can "hard release" a raccoon or a possum by opening your car door and dropping them out, but that doesn't work for squirrels. I think that's been the problem for Babygirl.

So maybe we should call this a "slow release", where the squirrel goes out to play then goes home at the end of the day. But so far it doesn't seem to be working that well for Babygirl, and seems to be more of a nightmare than a big adventure.

This morning Bernie called to say that Babygirl was going ballistic, bouncing off the walls with all her excess energy, and he thought he'd release her again. Well she turned out not to like the idea at all. She chattered angrily at him when he took her out of her carrier, to show her displeasure with the idea.

She hid from the other squirrels in the hedges, then finally climbed up a tree and went into statue mode again. All her earlier energy was gone and she was now in a deep funk. She was hanging over a branch like a limp dishrag from about 2:30pm until we left at around dusk, never moving a muscle.  Thank goodness the hawks have left the area!

No comments:

Post a Comment