Things You May Not Know

My Family Yearbook Post #15

Things You May Not Know

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Since the last post was about a family pet, it gave me the idea to share more about other animals our family has taken care of through the years. Did you know that we use to have a wild pig that I bottle fed, two pot bellied pigs, 3 brown squirrel's, 3 baby opossums, 1 raccoon, numerous rabbits, fish, dogs, cats, and one flying squirrel?

Most we saved from the jaws of other animals and most were babies that I hand raised and bottle fed. Almost all were returned to the wild as soon as they were big enough to be set free.

The most memorable was the flying squirrel we named "Rolly" Flying squirrels are unique. The one we had was very gentle and never even tried to harm any of us. They have the softest fur and no they really don't fly. They use the skin (which looks like wings)under their legs to glide down from heights. They are awake at night and sleep all day, so they are not good as pets and their odor is strong. Also, when we had ours we ended up with two more that came up, I guess they smelled ours.

Next, the one that took my heart was "Stinky" my brown squirrel. I had him from 1999-2008. He loved me. A tree service was clearing land and cut down the tree that his nest was in. All his siblings died. My brother-in-law found him and brought him home. He looked like a little rat. We fed him around the clock and took care of him. Once he got old enough, we tried to release him to the wild, but he just kept coming back to his cage. So we ended up keeping him after saving him from dogs. He had no fear of people or animals and that is why we couldn't let him stay out on his own. So we kept him in a huge cage in the backyard for all those years. He would come to me and he let me clean his cage out, etc. He would always pick my hand up with his mouth wanting me to rub his back. He loved to be petted and would stretch out for me to do it. He also loved sweet tea. When he would climb up trees, I'd go outside and shake a glass of sweet tea and he would come down to drink it.

The raccoon we had was also one that really stuck out. Her name was "Lily" she was a mess. A friend of Brent's heard a loud noise outside his home one night and when he went to find out what it was,he found his dogs with a little baby raccoon. He put up the dogs, but no mama came to get her little baby. So He ended up bringing her to us.We bottle fed and hand raised her. She was alot like a child...she got into everything and I mean everything. We kept her for a year and then set her free ,because she was such a handful and because she was tearing everything up in our house...it was time to let her go. She also would take stuff and hide it from you.

The last I'll share about is the wild hog we had. My hubby went on a hunting trip with friends. They were hunting for wild hogs in south GA. While on the hunt several hogs were shot. However, one had babies and they didn't know until it was to late. So feeling guilty some of them brought babies home. We ended up with a little girl one that we named "Porky" . We had Porky for over 11 years. She to was bottle fed and hand raised. The only aggression she ever had, was one time she pushed Jon down with her nose and took his bubble gum:)

However, wild animals belong in the wild. I encourage anyone who has a baby one now to call someone who is licensed to care for wild animals. Also, I don't advice you to try to tame a wild animal ,because most are mean and will bite you.Most can not be tamed. Their nature is not to be friendly with humans. Some animals can bite you and make you very sick or even kill you...even the smallest ones. So be cautious anytime you approach a wild animal of any kind.