Meet the Corner Brook dog and baby squirrel who have become the best of friends

They’re a unusual couple but Alvin and Berlin have come to be the most effective of close friends. Berlin is a border collie owned by Corner Brook’s Alisha Rideout. Alvin? Very well, he is a squirrel Berlin located on a hike at Crescent Lake.

Rideout suggests she thinks dog and squirrel have a distinctive connection.

“I consider in which Berlin originally uncovered him and used all individuals hrs with him, that they definitely have a exclusive bond,” said Rideout. “They will perform with each other, Berlin will ‘boop’ him with his nose, and when Alvin is ingesting his bottle, Berlin will lick his deal with, lick the milk off his confront. 

“I feel Berlin does have a fatherly intuition in direction of this squirrel. They are often collectively.”

Meet up with Alvin and Berlin — one’s a puppy, one’s a little one squirrel, and they’re best mates

Alisha Rideout and her canine located a newborn squirrel when climbing, so she took it house and nursed him again to overall health.

Their introduction arrived in early Might when Rideout was climbing the Hazelnut Hiking Path in Eco-friendly Bay South. Berlin went for a dip in the lake to great off and returned with something in his mouth. To begin with she thought it was a useless animal but on even further inspection recognized it was a toddler squirrel.

“His very little stomach was heading up and down and I stated, ‘Oh my, that is nonetheless alive,'” explained Rideout. “I realized you happen to be not meant to acquire random wild animals property, so I did go away him the to start with night time by yourself, but when I came back [the next day] with a bucket and a blanket to place him in, I was like, ‘You’re coming property with me,’ so he did.”

Alvin, named soon after the fictional chipmunk, has been residing on Corner Brook’s west side for three months. And, bit by bit, he is gaining his independence. At 1st, Rideout bottle-fed him kitten method just about every hour or two, which arrived with other difficulties, explained Rideout.

“Just after you bottle-feed them, they cannot pee or poop on their possess,” she said. “So you bottle-feed them and then you have to have a minor Q-Suggestion, you have acquired to rub him so the pee will arrive out, because [otherwise] they will blow up with pee and they’re going to die.”

For the past several days, he’s suckled on bananas, apples and smaller animal drops. Rideout’s goal is to introduce him to sound food in the coming weeks.

Rideout, who performs as a hairstylist, claims the squirrel is starting to be additional energetic just about every day but is however properly behaved. 

“I assume because he has a harmless house, he has sticks and he has a nest, he will not have to check out to obtain wherever to build a nest,” she reported. “I think squirrels are damaging because they want someplace to go away and they want one thing to eat. But he has an abundance of both equally.”

There is certainly a cage, full with small sleeping quarters established up in Rideout’s residing area, but Alvin gets to run free most of the day. If he is not cuddling with Berlin, he is jumping all-around the furnishings, and ordinarily sleeps on Rideout’s pillow for about seven several hours each night time.

“He’ll just soar from home furniture to household furniture, he climbs the curtains, he’s like a spider monkey. He is definitely energetic but he is even now loveable at this place, he loves to cuddle. He sleeps [near my neck] every evening, enjoys to cuddle, enjoys Berlin.”

A wakeup call typically involves Alvin nibbling on Rideout’s eyelashes, and then they consider on the working day alongside one another, with him in a minor carrier.

“He’ll occur to operate with me just about every working day, and he’ll sleep but when he wakes up and he begins chirping at me, I will give him the bottle, and then I’ll  go back again to perform,” she reported. “Then, a couple hrs afterwards, he’ll start out chirping again and I am going to bottle-feed him yet again. But then, as soon as we get home, we’re just out [or] in bed, just hanging out, operating all over. He is not in the cage that typically.”

Examine additional from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador