Casper the Christmas Squirrel

Ava Kilburn - Ross

Life as a Vet Student - Winner

Casper was a very unexpected addition to the fur family.  When having lunch one day on an outdoor patio of a local Mexican restaurant I watched a tiny ball of fur approach my table.  There were crumbles from a tortilla chip on the ground that I watched her approach and thought “please eat it, I can’t take you home.”  She didn’t.  I then watched her approach a balled up napkin and as she began to nuzzle it I knew the inevitable - the squirrel was going home with me.  The restaurant was right off of a busy road and I could only imagine what would happen if I didn’t pick her up.

 So Casper went back to work with me in a take out drink cup and I presented her to our veterinarian with a “Guess what I found!” Luckily he was fond of her, told me to keep her, and we ravaged the cabinets for some puppy milk to feed her.  I spent the next week or two bringing her to and from the clinic with me and waking in the middle of the night so she could have a syringe feeding every 5 hours. 

Casper spent all of her time on my shoulder, or watching me from atop the doors.  She also enjoyed running up and down the banister of the stairs.  If new people came around she would always give them a good scare by jumping onto their shoulder from mine or climbing up their pant legs.  The cats learned early on she was part of the family - and that she wasn’t afraid to nip their tails…  Her favorite treats were pecans, chocolate chips, Dr. Pepper and sharing PB&J sandwiches - in moderation! 

When Christmas came around it only made sense to introduce her to the Christmas tree - she was terrified of it!  The closer I would move her towards the tree, the more she would back away.  Eventually she decided it was great and started to spend time in it, especially the top where she could pose as the Angel.  There was a candy bowl full of hershey’s kisses on the kitchen counter that went quickly empty one day.  We discovered Casper was stealing the kisses one by one and burying them in the houseplants for later.  We would catch her digging them up then finding the highest place she could to unwrap and enjoy her treat.  

She also taught herself to open tupperware when Christmas sweets started to be made.  We would often find her running about the house with pralines (a South Louisiana sugar and pecan treat) bigger than her, her head would be cocked back as far as it could go so she wouldn’t topple herself over.  She got one over on us with the Christmas treat thievery, as my mom found a piece of praline behind a picture frame six months later.  Lesson being - everyone should own a squirrel and you haven’t lived until you’ve shared a sandwich with one.