Jeff was walking along when he found a tiny baby animal lying on the street, suffering under the hot Florida sun. He rescued the little critter and managed to keep it alive—and now they are absolutely inseparable.
As it turned out, this little critter was actually a baby flying squirrel! How cool is that? Realizing that the baby squirrel had been separated from her mother, he knew that if he didn’t intervene, the animal would perish. Jeff acted immediately and took the squirrel home with him.
“I found her half dead, lying on the sidewalk in the Florida sun,” said Jeff. He posted the photos he had taken on the internet, and they quickly went viral.
Not everyone agreed with his decision, however, as Jeff received much negative feedback. “I posted pictures on Reddit that day and had a bunch of know-it-alls tell me she would die because I am not an animal rehabber.”
Yet some messages he received were very interesting. He said, “I’ve gotten hundreds of messages and 12 marriage proposals!”
He called his new furry friend Biscuits and decided that he would take care of her. He started to learn all he could about the flying squirrels in order to provide her with the best conditions for living. He started to feed the baby squirrel with a mixture of puppy formula and heavy cream. He also took Biscuits every day to his office during the first two months of her stay.
Now, Biscuits has her own cage with many things just for her comfort and entertainment.
“She has a big cage and semi-free reign of the house when I’m available to supervise,” said Longo. “She wouldn’t last 5 minutes in the wild now. She is super friendly to people and not afraid of animals.”
Speaking of other animals, Jeff also has dogs, who just love Biscuits—and it’s a mutual affection. “I just have to watch them so they don’t accidentally squish her,” said Jeff jokingly.
Jeff and Biscuits formed a wonderful bond, and they have a ball together.
“She runs around me like I’m a big tree,” said Jeff. “… then jumps on things and then jumps back … gets excited … starts chirping … rinse and repeat.”
One day, he thought she had run away. “When she first started becoming mobile, she escaped ... I found her in the bathtub in the morning,” he said.
One might imagine that nocturnal, wild animals like flying squirrels would not like living in a human house. But for Biscuits, this is proven otherwise. As Jeff stated, tongue in cheek, “I’m stuck with the little fluffball.”
