Squirrel nursing

Wed, 29 Jun 2016 15:39:40 GMT

Went out to set a sprinkler in my flower bed and found a squirrel laying there in the hot sun. I thought it was dead and went to get a paper towel to transport the body with but when I came back it flailed around weakly and flipped over. "Oh no, you're not dead...yet."

Got a flat shovel and used it as a squirrel stretcher to take the unresisting patient to a shady spot under the vine maples, screened it off with a small bench tipped over to make a little hospice courtyard where my old cat ambling by wouldn't immediately see it. It lay there looking miserable and hot. Felt very helpless and inept as a nurse.

I dribbled a little water from the nearby birdbath from my fingertips and the squirrel eagerly took in every drop I managed to land near her mouth, little pink tongue flicking in and out. She sucked the water that had fallen on her foreleg. Fetching a dropper of clean water, I came back and she drank from the dropper desperately, then fell back and rearranged her paws to make a pillow under her head, half closing her eyes. I made a loose dome of dry grasses over her to conceal and comfort then left her there to rest with a blueberry and a few crumbles of nuts near her nose.

I presumed it was a squirrel hospice rather than a hospital. My Pi-cat came by and just sat on the edge of the bench and idly watched for a while then wandered off - glad she's not as young as she once was, she used to catch and eat them. Later on I went to presumably gather the body, but found the squirrel had gone! No sign of violence, she simply gathered her wits and slipped away.

It's a small thing, but I am grateful for small life.

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Squirrel nursing