FESTIVE SPROUTS WERE A HIT WITH THE SQUIRRELS LAST YEAR
Polly Pullar, is a conservationist and wildlife rehabilitator. She lives on a farm in Perthshire, Scotland, with her partner Lomhair
Our animals come first every day of the year and Christmas Day is no different. If we’re invited out for Christmas lunch, we always say we can’t leave until everyone’s fed and tucked up.
But this year we’ll be focusing on the animals. I’ve got baby hedgehogs, a young red deer calf called Cloudy, sheep and another red deer, Ruby. We have a new guest for Christmas too
– a red squirrel called Ted.
He travelled down from
Ullapool where he was rescued by local conservationist Noel Hawkins. He found him with an injured paw, and fed him up on milk, digestive biscuit mash, nuts and fruit.
This Christmas I’ll be taking on the next stage of Ted’s rehabilitation. He will be in one of the aviaries with lots of squirrel climbing frames and a nestbox, next door to a female, so he’ll have squirrel company. If they get on, they may even be able to go in together.
He’ll be bringing his favourite sleeping bag – one of Noel’s old fleecy hats. I’ve got a cupboard full of hats, they’re popular with squirrels. Living in the aviary at the moment, they sleep in snuggly snoods with one end sewn up.
For Christmas dinner the squirrels will get squirrel mix and treats to suit their tastes – previous guests have loved nectarines and I’m hoping to tempt Ted with some festive sprouts as they were a hit at Christmas last year.
All being well, Ted won’t be here for next Christmas as I hope he’ll be well enough to be released by then.
It’s emotional letting go of animals when they’ve been through a lot, but it’s wonderful to release them into the wild.
Our squirrels live in the aviary where they sleep in snoods or a fleecy hat