A family who rescued a lonely baby squirrel are so nuts about him they set up a nursery - giving up a whole room in their house.

Salma Khan, 40, shooed away four eager cats, including family-pet Sherman, who were eying the petrified rodent in her garden.

The cold, weak, creature clung to her fourteen-year-old son Zayn Teemil's foot for comfort - sucking at the croc he was wearing.

The caring mum filled her fluffy pink bed-socks with uncooked rice which she popped in the microwave to make heat packs which the tiny animal snuggled-up to while they waited for his squirrel-mother.

The kind family salvaged a box from the recycling - pinching bedding from their hamster supplies to make a nest.

Ex primary-school teacher Salma took the small grey rodent into the family home at dusk, because she couldn’t get a rescue place.

The squirrel, now called Jonjo, took over her office - allowing Salma’s daughter, and animal-management student, Anbar Teemil, 16, to feed him special puppy milk that was recommended online.

The family cared for Jonjo for 16 days - trying to reintroduce him to the wild, and eventually taking the little critter to a squirrel rehab home.

Stay-at-Home-mum Salma, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, said: “It really was very funny having him and it got me out for walks.

“I loved watching him: he’s so agile. He’d get right up onto your head, in your hair, and into any gap in your clothes.

“If you didn't let him he’d scream at you. He was properly spoiled - it was like he had little tantrums.

"He just needed his mum: he clung and clung to the heat packs as soon as I put them down, so we called them the mama-socks.

“Although it’s lovely to have the space back, we were very lucky to have him, and we all miss him.”

This compilation was created on October 2021.