By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – The Johnsons could see it in his brown eyes: Reggie the squirrel wasn’t long for this world.

They found him in July, skinny and flea-covered, lying at the base of a cemetery tree. Weeks’ old and the size of a child’s fist, he was too young to eat solid food or to survive on his own.

The family couldn’t leave him to die.

Three months later, after round-the-clock feedings and constant care, Reggie is fat and happy, with a bushy tail and an eager appetite for all things nutty. For a while, he had a home with the Johnsons.

Now he has a life in the woods.

“I’m kind of sad that he’s not around anymore,” Karen Johnson said. “But I know we did a really good thing. We saved his life.”

Karen, her husband, Jeff, and their 6-year-old daughter, Susan, spotted Reggie after a funeral for a family friend.

He was wild, Jeff figured. Nature should take its course.

But a day later, the family went back. They couldn’t stop thinking about him.

He was limp when they put him in a basket and took him home. When a wildlife rescue group offered no help, they turned to the Internet. A Web site suggested puppy formula for food. A local pet shop proposed a tiny bottle.

For weeks, the family fed him every three hours. Most of the time he stayed outside in a container filled with shredded newspapers and fleece.

“My husband would call and say, Did you feed Reggie?’ It was like we had a baby,” Karen said.

Their sons, 11-year-old Caleb and 9-year-old Gabriel, were welcomed home from camp in August by an energetic squirrel.

During a family barbecue, he climbed on people’s laps and let them stroke his fur. For her first-grade class, Susan filmed Reggie eating yogurt-covered Cheerios and flitting around her shoulders.

But soon, he began to stray from the house a few hours at a time. Then a few days. Then a week.

When he came back, it was in the company of other squirrels. When Karen called his name, he turned to her.

“He’s the only one who doesn’t take off because he’s afraid,” Karen said.

The Johnsons continue to leave cashews for him. They plan to put his home – a big birdhouse with an enlarged opening – in a nearby tree.

It’s sad, she said, but at least he’s OK.

“It was such an unbelievable situation. I can’t even believe it happened,” Karen said.