If there is one thing you should know about me and my family it is that we always seem to acquire strange animals as pets. It all started when my dad decided he wanted to get chickens. So we went to the farmer's co-op and picked up some baby chicks. This was no big deal. But my dad and brother started to bring home more animals, and more animals, and more animals. We now have two goats, seven chickens, two geese, two ducks, one dog, one cat, one rat, and one squirrel. Yes, you heard me right. I said squirrel. And this is where story begins.
A lady my dad works with had a baby squirrel without a mother that she had found and wasn't sure what to do with it. So naturally, she called my father and brother to come inspect it. Next thing I know, I walk into the kitchen to get breakfast and my dad is syringe feeding a baby squirrel milk. Not something the average person walks in on, but for my family this is almost normal.
We fed and housed the baby squirrel (that my brother named Kevin) and finally released it into the backyard. But the funny thing is, Kevin (I know, I can't take the name seriously either) stuck around in our yard. He was so tame that you could even go up and pet him and he would climb up onto your shoulder and chill with you.
Last week, my mom went up one morning to feed our goats. As she was exiting the goat pen, she saw Kevin perched on the fence. She greeted Kevin, as any normal person would do, and he jumped up onto her shoulder. But all of a sudden, Kevin started running up and down her arms and biting her. Then he chomped down onto her right index finger. My mom screamed and scared Kevin off.
She ran into the house and started to clean up her finger. It was pouring blood and was very swollen. Still, a week later she can't bend it fully. At first, we thought Kevin could have rabies but then found out that it is very unusual for squirrels to get rabies and survive it for more than a few hours because they are so small. Of course, mom still went into urgent care. She ended up having to get a tetanus shot and is still on antibiotics.
When I got a text from my mom last week saying that she had survived a squirrel attack, I really couldn't take it seriously. The first thing I asked it what she was going to say to the nurse at urgent care! So here is a little tidbit for all of you college students out there; keep in touch with your families! You never know when a squirrel could attack your mom. The craziest things seem to happen when we aren't looking!