This is the heartwarming story of Arttu, a small squirrel from Finland who was adopted and raised by humans. Arttu was find injured on the street by an old lady, who once made sure the little squirrel is alive, she gave it to her nephew to take care of him. The young man took care of the squirrel and when he was well enough, he tried releasing him. He noticed the squirrel was blind in one eye, so he decided to keep him and named him Arttu lived a happy life and was a part of the family for 6 years.
“When it seemed like he had recovered, we tried to release him back to the wild but he fell from a tree and hit a rock.”
“He survived, but we realized that his eye would never heal completely and he wouldn’t survive on his own.”
“His name was Arttu (pretty much the Finnish version of ‘Arthur’).”
“We were very surprised how ‘tame’ he became. He liked to have playful ‘fights’ with our hands (you know, like cats do) and he was smart enough not to bite too hard. He also liked to take naps in our pockets.”
“He even recognized his ‘family’ and became very wary if there were strangers nearby.”
“We fed him nuts, fruits, berries and mushrooms.”
“Even when they let him go, he always came back – “He stayed there for a while and then jumped back to my shoulder.”
“Squirrel’s claws grow all the time so we had to occasionally cut them because he couldn’t wear them out naturally.”
The flash in this photo reveals the glow of his good eye…
…while this one shows his gray and cloudy blind eye.
“He died of old age. One morning I found him dead, curled up in his ‘nest’ like he was sleeping.”- explains Arttu’s human family.
“We fed other squirrels all the food we had stored for him before he died.”
