Ah, my cute little Alicia. She was one of most adorable rescues ever.
One hot summer day I went to visit my parents. They live on the second floor of an apartment building. It was a day no different than any other, but I had a very special appointment with faith that day. I went out to their balcony for no apparent reason, and as I was standing there, I heard the words "it's a baby" echoing in my ears. The rescuer in me was awakened immediately. I leaned forward, and looked down to see what's happening. There were 3 or 4 of neighboring kids gathered right below the balcony and examining something on the ground. They could barely contain their excitement, and kept repeating "it's a baby".
I had to run down the stairs as fast as I could to see what kind of "baby" they were looking at. Once I got there they gave me way to get closer. There was a tiny little baby squirrel curled up under a tree and just sleeping like an angel. It was the most adorable sight I had ever seen. I kept looking around to see where she came from, but I couldn't figure it out. I waited around for a bit to see if her mommy would show up to rescue her, but she never did. Poor little baby was left all alone. Finally I had to give in and picked her up. She was so tiny she could comfortably curl up in the palm of my hand. I noticed that one of her eyes was closed up and it had an infection. That was enough to make me take her inside, so I could wash her eyes.
The neighbors' kids followed me upstairs. I washed the little baby's eyes with some black tea, and in no time she opened both her eyes. She was to die for. I didn't know how long she's been down there all by herself, but I knew she had to be hungry. We warmed up some milk, and I fed her using a tea spoon. She drank up the whole thing making the cutest munching noises. Right after she was full she simply curled up in my lap and fell asleep again.
I had come in that day wearing a straw summer hat. Not being able to find a better fitting nest for her, I placed her inside the hat and covered it with a light towel. She loved it there and made herself right at home sleeping like a baby that she was. And she slept, and she slept, and she slept....
Here is a picture of her sleeping in her hat. It was taken with a crappy cell phone, and it has the worst quality ever, but after losing all my pictures due to a computer crash, this is the only evidence of her hat I could find.
It seemed like she was not interested in anything else but sleeping and drinking her milk. I had bought her a little milk bottle which had become her life line. She just absolutely loved her bottle. She was such a good baby, and never even left her hat. She loved it there, and would stay put even if we encouraged her to come out to stretch. She would come out to relieve herself on the pad provided right outside her hat and then would go right back inside and curl up to sleep. What a sweet little angel, and they have this bad reputation of being so crazy.
Well, she had us all fooled just right. As if she knew my parents were against keeping her, and I couldn't take her home to my monster kitties. She had to keep herself on her best behavior, so she did just that. She became the baby squirrel in the hat. That was her little world for the first week or two of her life. And then, she discovered something new..... a world outside the hat..... The monster in her was awakening very little by little.
She was truly an angel sent from God.... in her hat, and then with a slight modification after leaving the nest.... . The story continues.... stay tuned.
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