This is a sweet story of an injured red squirrel that got rescued and adopted by a family in Finland. According to the squirrel’s rescuer, Priami, there is a law in Finland where “everyone has a duty to take care of a wounded animal if they find one.” Priami shared their heartwarming rescue story with Reshareworthy.com.
Priami’s grandmother found the squirrel injured by the side of the road. She thought it was dead at first, but he moved faintly as she was moving him from the road, so she put him in a small cardboard box and asked if Priami would take care of him.
The squirrel’s left eye was hurt. Priami believes the squirrel fell from the nest and got attacked by birds.
They contacted couple of rehabilitation centers, but none of them could take him in at the time. So they learned what food he should eat and nursed him back to health so he could be released back into the wild.
Once he recovered, they tried releasing him back into the wild, but he fell from a tree and hit a rock. They realized that his eye would never heal completely and he wouldn’t survive on his own.
That’s when Arrtu (the Finnish version of “Arthur”) officially joined the family.
Arrtu ate a diet of nuts, fruits, berries and mushrooms.
“We got him an old ventilated cabinet when a local high school sold their old stuff. We only closed the door at night or when there was nobody home, otherwise he could roam the house as he pleased.”
“He had his own table covered with old newspapers. He ate there and did his business in the corner.”
“Squirrel’s claws grow all the time so we had to occasionally cut them because he couldn’t wear them out naturally.”
“We were very surprised how ‘tame’ he became.”
“He liked to have playful “fights” with our hands (you know, like cats do) and he was smart enough not to bite too hard.”
“He also liked to take naps in our pockets.”
“He even recognized his “family” and became very wary if there was strangers nearby.”
He liked Christmas trees.
Although red squirrels have an average life expectancy of about 3 years in the wild, Arrtu lived until he was 6 years old (he lived with his family from 2007 to 2013).
“One morning I found him dead, curled up in his ‘nest’ like he was sleeping. I’m very glad that he went that way. If he became ill and one of us had to put him down… That would have been terrible.”
The family fed the other squirrels outside all the food that they had stored for him before he died.
Photos republished on Reshareworthy.com with permission from Priami.
Arrtu was obviously well-loved by his family! Please share Priami and Arrtu’s heartwarming story with your friends!
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