diff --git a/lib/fog/core/attributes.rb b/lib/fog/core/attributes.rb
index 26b74c6d1..83bccae79 100644
--- a/lib/fog/core/attributes.rb
+++ b/lib/fog/core/attributes.rb
@@ -73,8 +73,8 @@ module Fog
             class_eval <<-EOS, __FILE__, __LINE__
               def #{name}=(new_data)
                 if new_data.is_a?(Hash)
-                  if new_data[:#{squash}]
-                    @#{name} = new_data[:#{squash}]
+                  if new_data[:#{squash}] || new_data["#{squash}"]
+                    @#{name} = new_data[:#{squash}] || new_data["#{squash}"]
                   else
                     @#{name} = [ new_data ]
                   end
diff --git a/spec/core/attributes_spec.rb b/spec/core/attributes_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8095ce75d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/core/attributes_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../spec_helper'
+
+class FogAttributeTestModel < Fog::Model
+  attribute :key_id, :aliases => "key", :squash => "id"
+end
+
+describe 'Fog::Attributes' do
+
+  describe ".attribute" do
+    describe "squashing a value" do
+      it "should accept squashed key as symbol" do
+        data = {"key" => {:id => "value"}}
+        model = FogAttributeTestModel.new
+        model.merge_attributes(data)
+        model.key_id.should == "value"
+      end
+
+      it "should accept squashed key as string" do
+        data = {"key" => {"id" => "value"}}
+        model = FogAttributeTestModel.new
+        model.merge_attributes(data)
+        model.key_id.should == "value"
+      end
+    end
+
+  end
+
+end
\ No newline at end of file