A true story of rehabilation about
two squirrels raised together.
Herman & Samantha

This is the true story of how Herman, (the Grey squirrel you see on these web pages) and Samantha, (the black squirrel you're also seeing on these web pages) came to be." I received Herman and his brother on February 26, 2000. They were taken by a cat that supposedly took them from a nest up in a tree. (How the cat got up the tree to the nest, I haven’t figured out yet). Herman’s brother died the same day we got him. His death was due to puncture wounds from the cat. Herman’s real name is “Herman Survivor”. As you can see by his photo, this survival didn’t look too promising. Well, he did survive. He was on a feeding schedule of every 2 hours.

When Herman was about three weeks old we received Samantha. Sam was the victim of a tree being cut down and had been the only survivor from the litter. She was just beginning to grow hair and I could tell that she was going to be a black squirrel.

Samantha was about a week older than Herman was, and she sure was happy to have someone to cuddle with. The two got along great and continued to grow.


At about five weeks of age I noticed Herman had a couple of problems. He was always very wet and couldn’t seem to control urinating. Usually, at this point, the squirrels will tend to go to the same spot of the cage to urinate. Herman would not do that; (I was changing their bedding every hour just to keep them dry). Herman’s other problem was that he had a very long upper incisor growing out of his mouth and over his bottom lip. This could be a major problem for him, and he would probably not be able to gnaw the tooth down. (In the meantime Sam was doing great and had no problems). I watched Herman for about a week and had put him on Amoxicillin, hoping that he had a bladder infection and not a permanent problem with his kidneys.

After about a week of no improvement, I brought him to the vet. I took both squirrels with me to try and keep them from becoming too stressed, (At this age stress is something to be very careful with in squirrels, as it is with all wildlife). The news the vet gave me was not good. She could see that he had no control over urinating. She had tested his urine, and found that he did not have an infection, and that his urine showed very little saturation. The vet told me his kidneys were not working properly at all. Her thoughts were that he would not survive and would only get worse. She believed that Euthanasia was going to be the fate of Herman. I felt that I should watch him for a while and give him more time, he didn't seem to be in pain. He needed to be bathed often to prevent an infection on his belly, from the urine on his skin. (He didn’t seem to mind that at all). I was hoping for a squirrelly miracle. I asked the vet to clip his top tooth, and she thought it might possibly straighten out once he started to gnaw.

About a week and a half went by and I noticed Herman was starting to stay dry. Another day went by and he was totally dry. After close observation I watched Herman go to one corner in his cage and urinate the biggest pee I've ever seen. He was now urinating normally and gnawing on bones like he should be. Both squirrels were successfully released together. The moral of the story - give these guys time, euthanasia is not always our only solution.

Chris Clark - Owner of Chris's Squirrels and More
Certified by the State of Connecticut for Wildlife Rehabilitation