While in her kitchen one day, Patty Robinson looked outside and saw a baby squirrel in her window. When she went into her yard to investigate, Patty could not find any siblings or parents, so she took the baby inside.
Patty did her best to find rehabilitators, but with no one to reach out to, Patty decided to raise the baby for eventual release. Little did she know that the baby squirrel, who she named Bunk, had other plans in mind.
“I had every intention of setting him free,” said Patty. She made sure that even Bunk’s diet was similar to one he would have in the wild. “Everything he ate, I learned from the other squirrels that it was okay for him.”
When Bunk was nine months old, Patty knew it was time for him to leave. She let him outside, and he was gone for five days. But by the fifth day, Patty heard familiar growling from outside her door.
When she opened it, there was Bunk. “He was shaking uncontrollably,” said Patty. “I was holding him, and he was growling.” After that, she tried to release him three more times, but he refused to leave.
But if Bunk was going to stay with her forever, Patty intended to give him the best home possible. “I being an artist and a builder, I said, alright, if he can’t be in the trees, I’m going to make him a tree,” said Patty.
If there is anything Patty Robinson’s story can teach us, it is that sometimes the biggest changes in our lives can come in the smallest of packages. “He makes me a better person,” said Patty.
