squirrels toronto

Toronto couple helps baby squirrels abandoned on their lawn survive

When a Toronto couple found a group of abandoned baby squirrels on their lawn, they didn't know what to do at first. Before long, they were helping the tiny creatures survive.

On the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 8, after a big storm the night before, Catherine Dodge and her husband found four baby squirrels scattered on their lawn. They appeared to have fallen from their nest in a tree during the storm.

The couple immediately put them carefully into a cardboard box and called Toronto Wildlife Centre, but the rescue organization was full up and unable to take the squirrels in. Instead, they instructed the couple on how to care for the babies until their mother hopefully returned.

To keep the little guys alive and comfy, they filled up containers with warm water, gave them a towel for warmth, chopped up apples to eat, and played the sound of baby squirrels calling for their mother next to them.

One of the squirrels even ended up going on an unexpected little adventure. It escaped the box and crawled under a neighbour's truck, where it actually wasn't found until the truck arrived at a mechanic.

The baby was safely returned to the cardboard box, though all the squirrels were transferred to a larger one just in case.

With no sign of the mother by Friday afternoon, Dodge posted to a local Facebook group looking for advice.

"I didn't want to call the city in fear of them putting the squirrels down," Dodge tells blogTO. "I received a lot of feedback from the group and one of which was to call another rescue that was an hour and a half outside of Toronto."

The rescue told her she'd need to bring the squirrels there, but she wasn't able to with a newborn of her own at home. That's when a local neighbour reached out and offered to pick them up that very evening.

"She told us how she rescues and rehabilitates wildlife and was willing to take in and help these squirrels," says Dodge.

Since the woman took them in, the squirrels have been bathed of all fleas, are being fed formula and have been resting in a new cage on a new heating pad.

Hopefully it'll be easy living for them from here on out.

Lead photo by

Catherine Dodge


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