Squirrel savior

Their homes get chopped down and they are left alone in their nests to die.

Jovan Zeller's conscience won't let her accept that.

She works at her father's tree-cutting business. The crew handles mostly residential trees — those that are a danger to people and property.

Zeller's job allows her to protect people and spare their property from disaster. During the winter and spring, she devotes many of her off-hours to protecting the animals most endangered from a tree-cutting.

She has a love for squirrels.

When a member of the crew sees a squirrel's nest — and after it appears the mother is nowhere to be found — it's handed over to Zeller. Last year, she raised a total of 15 squirrels.

"It's unethical for us to just let them die," she said as she fed a 10-day-old squirrel with a syringe and puppy formula Friday afternoon. "We take their home."

Nursing and raising baby squirrels require persistence and patience — and money.

Zeller, 31, is glad to save helpless animals. She feels compelled to do it. She will readily plunk down $26 for a container of formula.

When she grew up on the West Coast, her mother was a volunteer at a zoo. During her spare time, Zeller's mother would raise abandoned raccoons.

Zeller was raised by parents who have both a love of animals and a respect for the environment. It bled into her.

When the subject turns to something she cares about — namely wildlife rescue — carrying on a conversation with Zeller is a lot like reading a Wikipedia page. The facts keep flowing out of her mouth.

She mixes the puppy formula with heavy whipping cream. She knows using kitten formula is harmful to a squirrel's bones.

The entire process of raising one or more baby squirrels lasts about 12 weeks. It requires around-the-clock care.

Zeller feeds the squirrels every two hours for the first four weeks of their lives. It's common to see her with bags under her eyes during this period, she said.

After that, she can start feeding them every three or four hours, which allows her a little more sleep. Eventually, she puts Cheerios in their bedding so they can get accustomed to solid foods.

Not long after that, she starts feeding them vegetables.

"It's not good to feed them only nuts," Zeller said. "They need vegetation more — like plants or (fungi). Nuts are to squirrels what chocolate cake is to us. They're like desserts and they're very fatty."

Her father's business, Tree Care by Robert Miller, is environmentally friendly. The benches, chairs and table in the lobby are made from some of the wood the crew has collected from job sites. Nothing gets carelessly discarded — especially not the wildlife.

The two squirrels Zeller inherited last week came from a job site in Beverly Hills. They were the first two she's collected this year.

She tries not to get too emotionally attached to her squirrels. She wants them to get reacquainted with nature as quickly as possible. She doesn't believe in domesticating wild animals. She normally doesn't give them names.

Once the squirrels reach a certain age and strength, Zeller puts them in a large cage, located outside the business along Cobb Road.

After a few weeks, she opens the cage and lets them run along a thick branch that connects to a hollowed-out tree. They make a starter's nest and grow accustomed to the outdoors for another couple weeks. After a while, they disappear. They gain the confidence to live on their own.

One squirrel keeps returning to the cage. It's a favorite of Zeller's. She broke down and named him Charlie.

Friday after sunset, Charlie showed up after hearing Zeller and her boyfriend outside. The young squirrel jumped on top of some freshly sawed wood and squeaked. Zeller knew it wanted some peanuts.

Charlie — and others raised by Zeller — is different from most squirrels. He isn't skittish around people.

When customers showed up last year to purchase fire wood, sometimes the squirrels wandered up to them and then tried crawling on them. Zeller was mortified.

No one was bitten, but that wasn't enough to comfort everyone.

"Some thought it was really cool that they were crawling up their legs but others were like, 'Oh my God!' " Zeller said.