My wife's newest Project/Pet?

This was our “ pet” tree rat in mountains of Va. It would come to the glass door to the deck and scratch to get a cracker(s) or peanut. Would sit on deck and eat then get on hand rail and get some sun. Pretty tame as we could go out on deck and it would not run. Neighbors fed it too so it had it made until some low lay ran over it in front of neighbors house. They were PO’ed big time and wanted to call the police as car was speeding through our very quite street where speed limit was 25.
 

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I live less than a mile from the Great Miami River. Along its banks are many declared Redtail Hawk breeding grounds.

Small birds, squirrels, rabbits,snakes and chipmunks, among others, are scarce around here.
 
We are going to try to get this one released to the wild if we can. I'm not certain but think this one is either a runt of a litter ot may have had other problems. Not gonna be big so I think a runt. Might have been the mother getting him out of a nest ..
The mother knew it was deformed or sickly. We had ducks and the mother would put all the ducklings in the water. Occasionally one duckling would drown. Same thing with litters of dogs and cats. We had coyotes and the runts will be gone if you left them out overnight.

I use to live on a Horse Ranch and all the animals are interesting.
 
This is telling on myself. When I was a kid I hunted squirrels....seriously too. My Grandmother aunts mother father and me of course...ate squirrel. I'd would go hunting bfore school and it was most every day,,,the season was from Oct 5 to the 31st...you could get 6 a day. Had a game warden check me most every morning and I always had at least 4...He always wondered how I got so many...I had a 10 foot 2x8 in the woods with large nails in it...15 I think...and I put an ear of corn on each one....in a little grove of shellbark hickory trees....and a batch of hazelnut bushes on the edge of the woods. When the hazelnuts came on you had to beat the squirrels off with a stick to get one or two. I had all the bases covered.
 
I also hunted and ate tree rats when a kid. My 2 best friends would come out on Saturdays and they used shotguns, I used a 22 rifle. Saw one of them in HS reunion the other after our HS reunion, had not seen him in 35 years…
 
The only other people that hunted them that I knew of were 3 or 4 of the black folks around town. One of those men was pretty slick. He'd go into a frmers field pull out a couple rows of soy beans and plant some peanuts...Every time the farmer would cultivate (no spray back then.)..they cultivated the peanuts for him. Dug the nuts before the beans got cut...or during squirrel season
 
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