Last week, Kendall Warnock, owner of A1 Automotive in Lincoln, Nebraska, got a call from a truck owner who was in need of assistance. His truck, which had been sitting unused in his driveway up until recently, seemed to be having some electrical issues.

“He said something wasn’t right and asked to bring it in,” Warnock told The Dodo. “When we popped the hood, we thought, ‘Oh boy. What have we got here?’”

Inside the engine compartment, there was a large mass of leaves and debris.

“It started to move,” Warnock said. “We didn’t know what was in there.”

Warnock and his technician slowly pulled back the material — it was a nest. And the nest was occupied.

“We saw three baby squirrels,” Warnock said. “They were almost hugging each other.”

Notably absent, however, was the babies’ mother.

That’s when Warnock had an idea. He asked his technician to gently place the baby squirrels, nest and all, inside a cardboard box. Then he called the truck’s owner to ask if they could stop by his house.

“We hoped to reunite the babies with their mother,” Warnock said, having gotten the OK.

They then placed the box with the squeaking babies out in front of the truck owner’s home. Their fingers were crossed as they lingered nearby to see what would happen next.

“After less than 15 minutes, here comes Mom,” Warnock said. “She beelines it to the box and looks in. One by one, she grabbed her babies and scurried them about a half block away, up a pine tree.”

The squirrels’ mom was no doubt heartbroken to have lost her babies. Footage from their reunion shows the moment her heart was healed:

With that, the little family was all back together — but it seemed Mom had one more thing she wanted to do.

“She ran back toward us and stopped, looking up at us,” Warnock said. “I took that as thank you.”

As an automotive specialist, reuniting furry families isn’t typically part of the job description. But for Warnock, it was that day.

“We always want to do what’s right,” he said, adding that doing for the squirrels came as its own reward. “If you want your heart warmed up, that’s what does it for us.”