Goodbye, squirrel

Posted on February 17, 2004 by Gene

The denouement of the squirrel saga this afternoon:
I decided this morning to close the damper and prevent the squirrel from coming down into the fireplace. I had a plan: she would most likely be sitting on the damper after some time, and I could open it and she’d fall down into the fireplace. Well, my plan worked — but sadly, she was lethargic and barely seemed to have the strength to move. I picked her up and took her outside, and she simply laid there with her face toward the ground. I placed a bowl of water and some crackers by her head, then picked her up and oriented her so that she could drink — but she didn’t.
The optimistic part of me wants to think that she was stunned from the 1 foot fall into the fireplace. The realistic part of me realizes that when animals are not themselves, it’s rarely a temporary thing. I took her outside my back gate to the grassy area, realizing that if I left her in my backyard, she’d be harassed by my cats and dog. I don’t know how much safer she is outside the yard, and I dread knowing that in all likelihood, she will die there. I don’t know if other people feel such worry about animals as I do; I usually feel that when animals come into the human world and something happens to them, it’s our fault in a way.
I hope that her babies — some or all — survived in the caring hands of the Animal Welfare League.