Her owners call the 4-year-old North Carolina poodle Pixie.
But three baby squirrels called her "momma," at least for a while. The mother dog had just finished weaning her own puppies when her milk became precious, life-saving elixir to the three infant squirrels displaced by a felled tree in the homeowner's yard.
The Daily Reflector newspaper carried this story, and with it, some photos of the mother dog and her little adopted youngsters.
When it came time for the babies to move on to care with a licensed rehabilitator, Pixie went through some maternal loss, or so the story says. Her owners are reportedly helping her overcome some of the sadness of no longer nursing young ones.
As for the three babies, they have their own challenges that lie ahead. Two seem to be faring well but the third appears to have difficulty processing and retaining food. There likely will be no followup in the newspaper to give details of the babies' fates, but one can only hope that their time with this generous and loving mother dog will have given them all strength - especially the weakest one - to go forward in life when the time comes.
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5 comments:
Aren't animals amazing, what a great dog.
I am always in awe of the things animals can accomplish so naturally, while the rest of us can only try to come close. Pixie sure is a special dog.
Cheers for Pixie, and I hope all three do well. But that leads me to a compound question: How long do baby squirrels stay in the nest and how large are they when they first come out? (Baby grays around here, in PA, seem nearly adult size.)
You could play reporter, Squirrelmama, and call the rehabilitator and get an update. You have his name, the name of the facility and the town. Easy to look up. You could say you're a rehabilitator with a blog and after you ran the post, people wanted to know how the littlest one fared. He'll tell you - and you'll have an exclusive. Dallas
Now that is a mighty fine idea, Dallas, and wish I'd thought of it myself, given that I was a newspaper reporter for 30+ years (and still work as a writer). I think we'll have to schedule an update! Thanks for the inspiration. :-)
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