Glen the Squirrel

This isn’t a horsey story, but it’s so cute we had to share it!

A very young squirrel fell from a tree and this marked the start of a most unusual relationship. A woman found the squirrel and its sister lying on the ground. They had fallen about 40 feet out of their nest. The sister was dead.

The woman asked animal lover Debby Cantlon, well known in the Seattle area for nursing injured animals back to health, to care for the squirrel, and Cantlon agreed.

Debby bottle-fed the infant squirrel after it was brought to her house.

When Cantlon took in the tiny creature and began caring for him, she found herself with an unlikely nurse’s aide: her pregnant Papillion, Mademoiselle Giselle.

Glen was resting in a nest in a cage just days before Giselle was due to deliver her puppies. Cantlon and her husband watched as the dog dragged the squirrel’s cage twice to her own bedside before she gave birth.

Cantlon was concerned, yet ultimately decided to allow the squirrel out and the inter-species bonding began.

Glen rides a puppy mosh pit of sorts, burrowing in for warmth after feeding, eventually working his way beneath his new litter mates.

Two days after giving birth, mama dog Giselle allowed Glen to nurse; family photos and a videotape show her encouraging him to suckle alongside her litter of five pups.

Glen and his new litter mates, five Papillion puppies, get along together as if they were meant to.

Glen naps after feeding.

Glen makes himself at home with his new litter mates, nuzzling nose-to-nose for a nap after feeding.