Salvatore Wildlife Rescue

12/21/2025

A new flying squirrel has joined the overwintering adult cage!

This little one comes as a transfer from another rehabber, having been discovered in the finder's basement. He's in his own crate within the adult cage so they can all acclimate to each other without risking any scuffles. Once they get used to each other his crate will be opened and he will have a monitored introduction to the others.

He is the 8th flyer in our overwintering cages and, as the 22nd flying squirrel admit, has the distinction of pushing flyer headcount ahead of grey squirrels for the year! 🎉

12/15/2025

Unfortunately yesterday's cat-caught friend succumbed to her injuries a little before 8pm, but this older kiddo arrived today in her place.

Happily this little one, who is VERY speedy but looks male, is healthy. However he was living indoors and, although white-footed mice are an incredibly cold hardy species, that means he is not acclimated to the weather so would not survive just being put outside without a transition period.

Now since mice occur in the high volumes that they do, rehabbers don't always have space to say yes to these healthy winter admits, but I did have space at the moment for this one. My tactic for these guys, when balmier mild-for-winter weather is in the forecast, is to start acclimating them to sequentially colder weather so that they can be released (with nest box/bedding/ongoing food assistance). When the weather is not slated to improve, then they stay in care and just do their little mousey thing- this is something you can easily replicate if you live trap a mouse during winter, but can't find placement for it. They have specific, but not overly complicated, needs when healthy so feel free to reach out if you are having trouble finding placement and need tips setting up a temporary winter refuge for it!

[Since this often comes up on posts like these if you fall into the "the only good mouse is a dead mouse" opinion I acknowledge that you feel that way, but that's not my thing here and isn't relevant to the above where I am talking about advice for folks who don't. If that's how you feel I encourage you to pursue the humanest options for dispatch available- starting with exclusion- and to avoid poison and glue.]

12/14/2025

See those squinty eyes and puffed up fur? Those are blazing neon signs that a critter is in pain, so if you encounter them are really useful to remember because you'll know the animal absolutely needs intervention.

I always say that winter is small rodent season around here because of the combination of cold snowy weather encouraging them indoors and large numbers of local antique New England farmhouses with also increasingly indoors pets. Even the most responsible and wildlife-conscious pet owners, who are actively trying to find and close all the rodenty gaps in their 300 year old home, find themselves dealing with the aftermath of pet-rodent encounters. It's unfortunate, but is just something that increases in frequency at this time of year even with folks who are actively working to try to prevent it.

This morning this kiddo, who looks to be female, had exactly that sort of run-in with a cat. The homeowner is many months in to rodent exclusion work in an attempt to prevent exactly this from happening and has indoor-only cats so is doing everything possible on her end, but this mouse was one of the unlucky ones.

She's in pain and is circling which, in this circumstance, almost certainly means she sustained a head injury. She's had meds and is being given some time to de-stress while those take effect, so we'll see how things go as she gets less uncomfortable. Keep your fingers crossed for her!

12/10/2025

🎄 Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree 🎄

12/08/2025

12/08/2025

This kiddo comes to us from the finder's attic, where he was caught earlier today. Here in MA, Southern Flying Squirrels cannot be ousted from anywhere indoors at this time of year without fatal consequences because doing so separates them from the warmth of their colony as well as the group's winter food cache. So, much like an amphibian, when found indoors during winter they fall into the "needs rehab until spring" category of critters.

Fun fact: this is my 21st flyer intake for the year, which ties flying squirrel admits with that of grey squirrels. If any more come in in the next three weeks they'll officially pull ahead as the second-most common intake here at SWR!

12/06/2025

In our house the holiday season really kicks off today, St. Nicholas Day. We start the morning with a big holiday breakfast (accompanied by snowfall this year!) and if it isn't a school day we spend it watching Christmas movies, often accompanied by crafts and baking. We then cap the day with a holiday meal and a slightly higher effort dessert, anything from creme brulee to a croquembouche. Tonight we're having an old classic!

I'm heading into the kitchen to make the ganache for that dessert (a Boston Cream Pie!), but before I do wanted to wish you and yours a lovely day if you, too, spend December 6th in holiday mode.

🎅 Happy St Nicholas Day! 🎅

12/05/2025

New friend for Flyertown!

This adult (very squirmy and uncooperative, but looked male at quick glance) Southern Flying Squirrel was just transferred from our friends at Tufts Wildlife for overwintering after going through quite an ordeal. He was found lying on his back in the middle of a street on 11/24 and was scooted off the road, but was brought to the wildlife hospital the next day when the finders saw that he had not left the area. Per his transfer paperwork he initially was quiet and very reluctant to ambulate, but his x-rays were unremarkable and he began to normalize with pain meds and time.

I found that there was a patchy spot of fur on his left hind leg, so I suspect that he may have had a soft tissue injury in that limb which made walking around too painful to attempt without supportive care. He's been off meds for several days and continued to thrive so he was given the all clear from the hospital to head to rehab.

I have him crated inside of the flyer cage to see if he and the others will take to each other with some acclimation time. Fingers crossed!

12/04/2025

Thank you so much for all your support, both on Giving Tuesday and with my cat news. I'm so grateful to be in a position to do what I do and I appreciate you all!

12/03/2025

Please note: I will be closed for the remainder of the day.

We lost our 16 year old cat, Ursa, today. In late October we noted that she had quite quickly lost a lot of weight, so we planned to address it at her semi-annual old lady vet visit since it was only a week or so later. Her labwork was normal so the vet recommended an Internal Medicine consult and ultrasound, but warned us that they thought cancer would be the most likely finding given her presentation, labs, and age. We scheduled that appointment for next available (it was to be next week), and aggressively tried to get her to put on weight. She continued to lose, despite a robust appetite and normal affect otherwise. On Thanksgiving she began to experience increased weakness and a rapid deterioration. We brought her to the vet first thing Monday morning for supportive care and we were warned that she may not make it to next week's ultrasound. Yesterday, in the middle of that big snowstorm, she crashed to the point where we weren't sure if she would be with us this morning. She was so we brought her to the vet to help her along peacefully.

Ursa was a foster fail from my bottle baby kitten days. She was dropped off in a box outside of the vet clinic where I worked in 2009, accompanied by a note saying she had fallen out of the ceiling of a work site and that no mother cat or other kittens were found. My husband and I moved in together shortly thereafter and, since I was moving in with two cats of my own and my husband had fallen in love with her while I carted her around with me in order to bottle feed, she was formally adopted and my duo of cats became our trio: Dante, Gattino, and Ursa. My husband immediately became her person and in recent years, when he began to work from home, she was a regular fixture of his work meetings because she spent so much time purring on his lap. She adored Dante and Gattino (who died in 2019 and earlier this year, respectively) and was a fiend for junk food- we had to heavily guard our bowls to prevent her from divebombing and stealing from them. She loved sunbeams. She was a very good girl.

Our hearts are very heavy today.

12/02/2025

Rolling into evening with a pic of everyone's favorite flying squirrel, Meringue!

Although albinism in animals is often associated with poor eyesight and there were indicators that Meri's vision was suboptimal, she thrived navigating in every new situation she encountered. Since she did so well, passing all her vet checks with flying (ha) colors, she was approved for release earlier this year with the rest of the group of spring babies she was so deeply bonded to. Hers was among the most emotional releases I have had because it was unclear whether or not she would be able to be released. Perfect outcome (with one or two tears)!

Ways to help this Giving Tuesday:
-Giving Tuesday Amazon Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/38GLVMMZNIEA8?ref_=wl_share
-Donate here on FB (or share/start your own fundraiser on our behalf 💚)
-Via website: https://www.salvatorewildliferescue.org/donate
-Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/SPSalvatore
-Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/US/fundraiser/charity/5420073
-CashApp: https://cash.app/$salvatorewildlife
-Linktree with shortcuts to alternate Wishlists (Target, Walmart, Chewy, etc): https://linktr.ee/salvatorewildliferescue

12/02/2025

Based on the timestamp of July 8th this is either Tagalong or George, but there's no presence or absence of family jewels in the shot to imply which 😉

The rehab flood toward the end of summer put a stark pre- and post-closure designation to my year, with the pre-period being absolutely jam packed full of grey squirrels. I took in 40 squirrels in general this year, 21 of those being greys (19 were flyers). Only 4 of those 21 succumbed to their illnesses or injuries, so despite being forced to miss the second wave of summer grey squirrel babies which artificially lowered my total I'm pretty pleased with those stats!

Ways to help this Giving Tuesday:
-Giving Tuesday Amazon Wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/38GLVMMZNIEA8?ref_=wl_share
-Donate here on FB (or share/start your own fundraiser on our behalf 💚)
-Via website: https://www.salvatorewildliferescue.org/donate
-Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/SPSalvatore
-Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/US/fundraiser/charity/5420073
-CashApp: https://cash.app/$salvatorewildlife
-Linktree with shortcuts to alternate Wishlists (Target, Walmart, Chewy, etc): https://linktr.ee/salvatorewildliferescue