The Squirrel Saga

Last weekend there was a great windstorm that came through Boise. We had gone out for a drive, and we headed up the hillside -- the weather was a little windy but nothing too unusual. Then, as we got to the top of the hill, we could see a great, dark, cloud coming in from the East. The wind began to blow like crazy on the hillside and we watched from above as the darkness blew over the city. It was quite the sight to see. We could see electrical plants sparking and the trees were bending. As we headed back down the hill, there was tree debris everywhere. We became concerned about our tree. Though we lost a bunch of small/medium branches, our tree was intact.

However, the next morning, Sunday, we found a poor little baby squirrel who had fallen from it's nest. I left it there, and I was planning to take care of it (bury it) on Monday morning. So, I went out Monday morning, first thing, to bury the little thing. I buried it. As I was walking back to the house, Sammi noticed another baby squirrel lying in the grass, and then I noticed one more. I went to get the shovel to bury the rest of them, but when I poked at one of the babies, it twitched -- it was alive! It had been lying there since Saturday evening.

So, instantly, my "save the squirrels" feeling took over and I went to work to try to save it. I wrapped it in a towel to get it warm, fed it a little water and rubbed it's little body and it breathed . . . which made me think maybe the other one might be alive. I brought it in and tried the same thing, it also breathed. At which time, I realized, that I may have just buried a live baby squirrel! I went back quickly to try to unbury it, but I could not do it without causing damage. I felt horrible, really horrible. I quickly went back to work to try and return the babies to health.

One of the babies was doing pretty well, while the other, which had a large head wound, lived for just a moment, and then she was done. It's injury was too great.
So this was "Lucky" . . . we got him to breath, to eat, and to live for the whole day and he seemed to be doing well. . .

At one point in the day he was doing really well, and we found that he liked it when we would sing to him . . . :-)

When Charles came home he brought kitten milk (looked it up on the internet) to feed the little thing. He said, "Give it to me, I have been looking forward to this all day!" (Charles LOVES animals.) He fed it, and again, he seemed to be doing well.

But then, in the night, little Lucky did not make it. We think he had pneumonia because the milk starting coming out of his nose and his breathing became very struggled. We tried to save him, but we failed.

However, that night, I had a dream -- right before I had been woken up to the poor thing struggling to breath -- I was there at his last moments. In my dream there was a squirrel and it was smiling widely at me. I knew that Lucky was grateful for what we tried to do. He is one of God's creatures and so I had to try! Now, Lucky and his brother and sister are in dancing amongst the trees in Heaven, I am sure of it. :-)