Four years ago in a Sussex churchyard, kebab shop owner Mehmet Onal, 58, found a baby squirrel with a broken leg.

Now, the two are inseparable and share Oreos, shopping trips, and what Mr Onal calls ‘unconditional love… loyalty and respect’.

Onal found the baby squirrel in Hailsham, near Hastings, in 2021. When an animal rescue could not help, he decided to nurse him back to health himself.

He said: ‘I take him to the vet and she said that by law they had to put them down.’ For eight weeks Mehmet cared for the squirrel, later named Alvin, giving him hydrotherapy until he recovered.

When Alvin was well again, Mehmet returned to the churchyard to release him, but the animal kept coming back.

‘He came running at me like a bullet,’ he said.

‘It was emotional. The way he came to him. He d

See Full Page