baby squirrel Sammy led a captive life after falling from a tree. For he was inside prison grounds and a prisoner tried to hand-rear him in his cell.
A spokesman confirmed that wardens came across the tiny grey creature nestled within a cell, in a sight reminiscent of the pet mouse scenes in the film Escape from Alcatraz. Apparently the prisoner found the abandoned juvenile while walking around the grounds. Just days old, Sammy had fallen to the bottom of a tree and lay curled up on the ground with his eyes still shut. He then scooped it up and smuggled it back to his cell.
Staff think the inmate secretly nursed the helpless infant in his lock-up for more than ten days. They called the RSPCA and Sammy was taken to nearby Dartmoor Animal Hospital, where he is now under the watchful eye of manager, Elizabeth Dyas.
She said: 'What he did was really lovely. You hear lots of horrible stories about convicts doing all these nasty things but what that man did was really special. It helps restore some faith in human nature.' The furry critter is now being weaned and has just opened it's eyes in the last few days, but Mrs Dyas has noticed a slight oddity which she thinks may shed some light on how the prisoner took care of it. 'It's doing really well but we have noticed some differences with this squirrel compared to the others. We normally use a syringe with a teat to feed the babies, which they suck on to get the milk out. This one opens it's mouth really wide so he must have used a standard teat-less syringe to feed it and I must say he's done a grand job.' she said.