The full in depth story, of Tintin The Squirrel

2014, it's a chilling spring afternoon, april the 14th.

I was in my garden sorting some garbage

when I suddenly hear rustle and hustle in my hedge,

immediately followed by loud thump!

Something, someone had fallen on my lawn.

I turn around and I saw a tiny baby squirrel, completely unconscious,

knocked out by the impact on the ground.

I went over to take a closer look at the little baby,

but I was stopped by loud chirping and powerful stomping from the nearby tree.

"Get away from my baby!"

The mommy squirrel screamed at me.

I understood exactly what she said and I backed away from the baby.

I went back inside my apartment and closed the garden door.

I peaked through the curtain to see the mamma squirrel collect her baby.

She quickly came down and nudged the unconscious baby.

She tried to move the baby but, there was no sign of life.

I could hear multiple chirpings, it was coming from the roof.

Mamma squirrel had more babies, calling for her help.

Mom was left with no other choice, she had to go back her other babies

before she would loose anymore of them.

She looked at me through the garden window, just for a split second:

Again, I understood her message loud and clear, like she was able speak:

"Help my baby, please help him!"

I nodded at her and she rushed off to help her remaining babies.

I quickly ran out to the baby, he was soaking wet and very cold, but he was alive!

I quickly ran back inside, I grabbed some towels,

wrapped him up and dried him before holding him between my hands,

to give him some of my body heat.

I had no idea what to do!

I needed my hands, I needed to call someone!

I placed the little squirrelly with my elderly female cat, Coco.

I knew Coco would take good care of the little squirrel for me

while I figured out what to do.

Coco was a pure, motherly soul.

She would often find dead animals in nature and try to take care of them, protect them from other cats, especially from her brother Tiger. More on Coco and Tiger in a different story.

Right I was, she immediately started washing and cleaning the baby squirrel.

Coco alerted me to the squirrels chest,

like she was saying "look dad, he's hurt!".

Right she was, he had a large, gaping wound on his chest,

like a whole piece of skin was missing.

Peaking through his transparent chest,

you could almost see his tiny heart beating behind the ribs.

He must have hit a branch on the way down.

Meanwhile I got a hold of wildlife services.

They told me to put him back, let nature take it's course.

I obviously couldn't do that, I made a promise to his mom.

I called 5 nearby vets, none of them wanted to take a squirrel.

The 6th vet finally agreed to take a look.

We rushed our way to them, half an hour away in a taxi.

But, all they could do was to clean the wound,

as there was a huge piece of skin missing, so nothing to close the wound with.

Again, they offered to euthanize him,

I declined...

We went home, with kitten milk, cleaning supplies and bandages from the vet.

Took a crash course on the internet in wound cleaning and maintenance.

We started with bottle feeding, every 3rd hour, around the clock.

Followed by wound cleaning and replacing bandages.

But the squirrel kept ripping the bandages off with it's sharp claws.

I had to get creative...

So I cut up some of my sons old socks, made them into little tank tops,

to protect the wound from scratches.

It was time for a name.

My daughter and my son,

had just seen 'The Adventures of Tintin' the previous day,

so the name was obvious, Tintin.

Tintin quickly healed up,

stopped using the bottle and it was soon time for Tintin to go home.

We spent multiple days in the garden, all day long,

hoping that Tintin would venture out

and find his family again, but no, Tintin had other ideas.

Tintin refused to leave the stone tiles in the ground,

even without a fence, he stayed within the stone tiles in the ground

and he refused to go out onto the grass.

I tried putting him on my shoulder and walk him out of our garden but

he would instantly panic and run straight back inside.

So, it was time to get creative again.

I figured that if he felt safe with his little tank tops on,

then maybe, just maybe a harness would make him feel safe?

I searched the internet high and low,

bought 10 or 12 different versions and finally,

I found a ferrets harness that was perfect.

He absolutely loved the harness and

he finally felt safe going outside the garden.

But with a harness comes a downside, a lead.

Tintin couldn't crawl the tall trees with only a harness on, without a lead,

cause if his harness got stuck, I wouldn't be able to help him.

With the lead on, I could at least help him by pulling the other direction.

So we had a medium long lead on and he quickly found out that

the lead always led straight back to me.

So if he got tangled up, he simply unwrapped himself and came back down.

We could quickly upgrade to a extra long lead, so he could go as high as he wanted.

We formed a routine of having long walks every day,

exploring, eating fruits and greenery from nature like Tintin was always ment to be doing.

It was at this time my Instagram account started to kick off,

hundreds of people turned into thousands and

I changed my instagram account name from Decan, to Tintin_The_Squirrel.

We quickly caught the eye of other people on our walks,

some were excited, curious and friendly, others were hostile,

screaming at me and calling me an animal abuser.

Threatening me and calling the authorities on us.

We started being more careful when venturing out,

trying our best to avoid people as much as possible.

But eventually,

the authorities caught wind of our identity and our location.

They gave us 12 months to get him off the harness but,

we and our followers already knew, that was never going to happen.

Tintin would absolutely panic, sprint back home and

disregard any and all dangers on the way, just to get back home.

Once I caught up with him at home,

he would be shaking, panting, eyes wide open,

like he had a full blown panic attack.

Regardless and despite video evidence every single day,

the harness was banned, for life...

We had to get creative again, to give Tintin the best possible life, under the new restrictions from the authorities.

With the help of the community,

we raised just enough money to build him a fence,

so that he could at least feel safe on the grass in his own little paradise.

It worked and Tintin loves exploring the grass and the wild grown edges of the fence, nip away at the greenery and especially, the freshly grown dandelions.

He has always had free access to garden most of the summer but

he refuses to be out there alone, without me.

So it was time to get creative once more.

We once against came together as a community

and we raised enough money to build him a full blown, huge Catio.

A Catio is like a human Patio, but fenced in to protect your cats from predators.

He absolutely loves being out there, he made it into his own extra room to the apartment!

He spends all year round out there now, even winter.

Although I do miss having him a few feet from me at night,

he still comes in to wake me up, with morning cuddle around 5/6 o'clock, every single day.

And that, is the story of Tintin The Squirrel.

The oldest, still living Red Squirrel, in Danish History.