On August 18, 2002, our dog Duchess, found a baby squirrel, who at the time was approximately 3 weeks old. The mother had dropped her into our tree and Duch found her, and cried for us to follow her to what she had discovered. With information from the internet, we followed instructions how to care for this wee one, and to this day, our JubJub is a vital, important member of our family. We found Duchess had an uncanny ability to find little critters that needed us as we discovered the following spring. It was the end of May 2003, and I was getting ready to cut our lawn. My husband was on night shift and was sleeping in our bedroom upstairs, and I had our Duchess outside with me. Duch stays with me all the time, so it was a surprise to turn around and not find her near me. I called and discovered her on the property next door at the bottom of a big willow tree. On the trunk of the tree was a wee thing, I recognized as a small baby squirrel. Not old at all. Certainly older than Jub was when we found her, but no more than a couple months old. The little one came down the tree and started to follow Duchess...I was delighted to watch this little guy, who had absolutely no fear of me or the dog. He would make these little tough guy grunting noises and do this little jump, that I assumed was to scare us away...all it did was make me laugh. Lord, was he cute. The sounds of my voice, woke my husband up and he came to the window, and told me to "leave it alone". I know I should, but he was so darn sweet, I had to watch him a little. He was trying to eat a dandilion shoot and was so unstable, he would kinda lean to one side. I ran inside and got him a peanut, but he couldn't even crack the shell of that. I then realized he wasn't yet weaned from his mama, wherever she was. There were no mama squirrels around yelling at me, so I was certain this little guy was on his own. I decided though, to leave him, and watch him from a distance. The funny thing is, he followed us home. We would get to our driveway, and turn around and there he was hopping along behind us. I would go pick him up and put him back on the tree trunk, and he would follow us yet again. This went on for almost a half hour, and I heard a big sigh upstairs, and my husband told me to go get the small cage and we'll look at him later . So I got a small cage, some pieces of apple and a small bowl of water. He sat there and sucked the juice out of the apple and had no idea what to do with a water bowl, so I knew he was still an infant. And so small...and again, Lordy, was he cute. After the lawn got cut, hubby and I went to the pet store to buy replacement formula and a nurser kit. We'd been through this before, so it was old hat. We named him Ozzy because he was a bit shakey as he walked and reminded my hubby of Ozzy Osbourne. He tackled fruits and vegetables, and took to the formula. But one thing we noticed with Ozzy that was so different than JubJub. He wasn't very squirrelly. Jubby would run and ricochet off the walls, climb and jump off me, and generally acted like a squirrel. Ozzy was very calm, very sucky, and to this day, I can picture his little face as he would come to my feet and look up at me as if to say "Pick me up please". Both Jubby and Ozzy snuggled with me as babies, and Ozzy, as Jubby did, liked to climb inside my shirt and cuddle on my chest. On July 12, 2003, while in the Falls with friends, I got the hysterical phone call that Ozzy had passed away. My husband was in the living room and Ozzy in his cage sleeping. Hubby noticed Ozzy's tail twitching and thought he was playing, then realized this wasn't right. He found Ozzy in a massive seizure, and tried everything to revive him, but it was not to be. Our children and ourselves were so devastated, I can't describe the words. For the six weeks he was with us, he made such an impression on our hearts. Online research told me something, that I kind of knew deep down. He had a metobolic bone disease, and it was something his own mother had known, and had abandoned him as she knew he would not survive. He hadn't gotten enough milk from her as a small baby, and it affected his growth. Which explained why he wasn't as active. In our hearts we know, we did give him six weeks of love and joy, the same he gave us, But we will never ever forget that little guy. His pictures are on our fridge, and every day we look at him and smile, remembering how precious he was. Our Jubby is now two years old, and is in perfect health. I swear she eats better than us. She provided much comfort to us in the weeks after Ozzy left for the Rainbow Bridge. I picture him there, scurrying around, giving little tough guy grunts, waiting for us to all be together.