A few years ago on an autumn day in Michigan, Joseph Mader arrived home to an unexpected visitor. As he walked up to his house, something strange darted across his path.
“It looked like garbage bags or plastic,” Mader told The Dodo. It was also furry.
Mader realized the moving “bag” was actually a fox squirrel with a nest of debris tangled in his tail.
Joseph Mader
Knowing the little animal needed help, Mader put on a pair of thick gloves and picked up the struggling squirrel.
“It was very, very sticky and smelly,” Mader said. “He instantly started screaming and biting me.”
Recognizing the animal must be in pain, Mader tried to untangle the tail from the debris. Moments later, he got the surprise of a lifetime: A squirrel head popped out of the mess.
Joseph Mader
“Ah! There’s another one!” Mader shouts in a video posted to TikTok. “What am I gonna do?”
An entire second squirrel, who Mader said “about made me jump out of my skin,” had been hidden in the clump, his own tail tangled in the debris.
At this point, Mader called his wife, Lindsay, for backup.
What the Maders encountered is called a “squirrel king.” It happens when squirrel tails get knotted together with debris, sap or other items. As they squirm to get away from each other, it makes the knot worse.
Squirrel kings aren’t common, though the Dane County Humane Society encountered a similar situation a few weeks ago — but it was only their third in 15 years.
Joseph Mader
Lindsay set to work untangling the squirrels her husband captured. “He held one in each hand, and I started unwrapping their tails from one another,” Lindsay told The Dodo. “They both were in a lot of pain, which is why I think that they were fighting one another.”
Finally, Lindsay separated them and both squirrels ran off. The Maders figured their squirrel adventure was over.
They were wrong.
Shortly after, during a cold, rainy night, Mader heard loud screeches coming from a window in their home. Dangling from the frame with a badly mangled tail was one of the squirrels they’d saved earlier.
Lindsay Mader
“It was almost like he was asking for help,” Mader said. The next morning, they rushed him to Erica Zuhlke at Critter Crossing Rehabilitation.
Lindsay Mader
“His tail had [been] cut off from circulation for quite some time,” Zuhkle told The Dodo. “It can be fatal.”
Zuhlke gave the squirrel pain medication and antibiotics, but eventually determined partially amputating the tail would be the best course of action.
Critter Crossing Rehabilitation
The stars aligned for the squirrel, whom a TikTok commenter named Tangles. After a successful surgery to remove the damaged portion of his tail, Zuhlke paired him up with another fox squirrel, who was his same age.
The two buddies quickly bonded and learned how to be squirrels together.
Squirrels rely on their tails for balance, warmth and to send messages to each other.
“There was a part of me that was concerned that he wouldn’t adapt,” Zuhlke said. “But he did really well. He was a very sassy squirrel.”
The Maders’ quick thinking and dedication saved a tiny life. Tangles’ rehabilitation went smoothly and he was released back into the wild, where he could climb trees and continue exploring.
Critter Crossing Rehabilitation
“The plan from the very beginning was always to release him with friends,” Zuhlke said. “After you release squirrels and you watch how they run about and climb super tall trees, all your worries kinda just go away and you know that they’re going to thrive out there.”
