It's a Squirrel's Life: One Man 'An Animal Fanatic'

It wasn't a sight you'd expect to see in the parking lot by E. Ridgewood and Oak amid the buses roaring by, kids walking around after school, and dogs on leashes. But there he was. Peanut, a two-month-old squirrel, was relaxing and catching some rays inside the pickup truck of Victor Vigilante, the owner of Critter Ridder in Kearney, NJ.

Peanut took a moment to run around on the back seat for a bit before Vigilante picked him up for a photograph.

"I'm an animal fanatic," Vigilante said.

And he certainly is. Vigilante rescues animals from pretty much wherever, he said, and as an animal lover he refuses to see them harmed. Peanut, along with six other babies were retrieved from a family's attic, along with the mother.

Vigilante gets the call to retrieve pets, including bats, racoons, squirrels, bugs, turtles, and all sorts of other non-traditional domestic animals, by owners who aren't enamored by the thought of calling them all a part of the family. Virtually all of the animals will be released in the South Mountain Reserve or another wildlife habitat.

"I give them back their freedom," Vigilante said, though he occasionally brings his work home.

In addition the squirrels, most of which are fed by bottle since they're still so young, he also has 2 dobermans, a bird, a cat..."and a girlfriend at home," he joked.

Most assume that squirrels aren't nice, friendly pets but that's incorrect, Vigiante said.

"They're just like cats."

Vigilante told Patch that he lets kids play with the squirrels and some other critters (with parents' permission, of course), and reports that they often have a very different sense of the animals after the interaction.

Even racoons can be docile, warm creatures, he said. Part of it is that animals have an inate sense of people, and they're often open to close human interaction if they feel comfortable, though he wouldn't recommend people just walking up to wild animals. He's a bit of an animal whisperer himself, he said.

"Not too long ago I had a big racoon–about 12-15 lbs.–just sitting on my shoulder," he laughed.

Although he has a litter of squirrels right now, all but Peanut will be in their more natural environment at the South Mountain Reserve.

"The more I'm around people, the more I like animals," he said as Peanut lept around the back seat of the truck.